The Fairy Tale That Was The Magic's Coaching Search

...I mentioned in my very first entry on May 25th, Stan Van Gundy was one of two choices I wanted as the Magic coach (the other being Marc Iavaroni). Once Iavaroni agreed to terms with the Grizzlies, I immediately turned my attentions towards Stan. He was just the most qualified man for the job.Then, the unthinkable happened: The Magic hired Billy Donovan as head coach.

Though I still thought SVG was the best candidate, getting Billy opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the Magic. Suddenly a new stadium was considered by many a done deal. Suddenly we had Darko and other players coming out of the woodwork to say they wanted to play for us. Suddenly the grass seemed a bit greener and water tasted fresher. Most argued that college coaches had horrible records and that Billy had no idea what he was stepping into, but the excitement really overshadowed all of that.

Then came 'Black Monday', where it became known that Billy wanted out. This day stained many a pair of Magic Fan underwear. Billy ran back to Gainesville, a little treacharous gremlin going back to his hole.

The only silver lining were the reports that Stan was our second choice. I began to wonder if this was all part of God's master plan to get Stan to the Magic.

The quick answer from God? "Nah. I'm just f**kin' with you Magic fans some more." Immediately came the reports that Stan was deciding between the Kings and the Magic while the Magic hurried to get Donovan the hell out of town.

The 'rock bottom' moment in VH1's Behind The Music of the Orlando Magic came yesterday, when it was widely reported that Van Gundy would be a King soon, and was in Sacramento to meet with the team. Also came reports that Riley, evil incarnate, had imposed a huge compensation request on the Magic for his whipping boy.

Many, including myself, stewed and thought all hope was lost. Who were we left with? Kurt Rambis? Pj Carlesimo? Otis Smith with a mask on?

Then came this morning, the part where everything came together. Snow White woke up, Sleeping Beauty woke up (wow, a lot of fairy tales end with dames waking up!), and Magic fans woke up to see on ESPNews that Prince Stan Van Gundy had slayed the Riley dragon and was on his way to Orlando.

Suddenly everything was as rosey as could be. Through some miracle of fate, the Magic had wound up with my top choice. PJ Carlesimo was still in the playoffs so he was safely away from our team and the unproven Billy Donovan was out, paving the way for Stan.

In Stan we get a coach that gears his offense to his players and is wonderful at developing young talent. Possibly above all, we get a guy who really wants to be here and helped our franchise out by picking us over the Kings. Once dumped by Riley and robbed of a title, the young knight finally gets his chance to shine.

The discarded coach is with the discarded Magic, two entities on the upswings of their careers. Stan is driving on his way to Orlando right now for a press conference at 5pm.

Now THAT'S a fairy tale ending.