Et Tu, Donovan?!

Well, Chicken Littles, as you might have already heard the sky fell this weekend. In the time between him getting sworn in as commander-in-chief on Friday and today, Billy Donovan decided that he wants to cut out of being the next Orlando coach and run back to Florida. Such a bizarre move was certainly a nut punch (and ovary punch to you ladies out there) for Magic fans.

With complete surprise at reading this stunning revelation, the first thing I did was look back at my press conference blog on Friday for clues. Something shot out at me:

From Black and Blue's Friday Press Conference Blog: Someone prefaces a question by “In a league that is consistently recycling head coaches…” and you can see Donovan’s face go “Uh oh…I totally didn’t think of that.” Too late, my friend!

I suppose it wasn't too late. It appears as if I had photograp- er, journalistic evidence of the exact moment when things started to go to the dark side in Donovan's mind.

Ah well, these things happen. As many fans pointed out upon his hiring, paying an unproven college coach was certainly a risk in itself. We may end up better in the end with the proven NBA coaches that are still out there. Also, even though it isn't the most positive news, the Magic are thrust into the spotlight once again. If you are a believer in the "there is no such thing as bad publicity" camp, you are happy. I am on the fence about that adage, but am an optomist so I can see things working out for the best in the end.

To echo my column from last week: Where do we turn now? Well, the Sentinel wrote this today at the end of the Donovan column linked above:

"It's unclear whether the Magic will ask for a settlement to allow Donovan to break his contract. It's also unclear where the Magic will be turning to now, but the second choice behind Donovan had always been ex-Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy."

If this is true, I will be ecstatic and not mind Donovan leaving at all. Stan has long been one of my top choices and I really think that this team (like the ladies) would do fantastic under him. That last joke was a bit crass, but those types of jokes are needed on a bleak Monday such as this.

I am not sure how the Sentinel got this news about Stan being the second choice, but hopefully it is true. The possibility of PJ Carlesimo already has sparked ire in the fans, and there really aren't that many other candidates out there. At the very least, our scorned team will be something of a 'feel-good story' this upcoming year. Can you imagine the possibilities if the scorned team (the Magic) and the scorned coach (Stan Van Gundy) wound up together?

Methinks it could be a marriage made in heaven, and he could be the coach to lead us to the promised land.