The Fan Voice: "Reversal of Fortunes"

By Live or Die Magic | October 19th, 2007


The Magic have had Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, Steve Francis, and Dwight Howard under contract. In the cases of the last four players, it was for the maximum allowable dollars at the time. That is some pretty impressive company and all of those players are still under contract in the league today. But it is Rashard Lewis who holds the title of “highest paid Magic player ever.”

Ever since we signed Rashard Lewis to the largest contract in Magic history, there has been discussions on whether or not he is worth the money, whether the Magic bid against themselves, and whether or not we needed to give him an extra guaranteed year on the back end.

Well, I for one was equally shocked by the fact that we got him to come here and by the fact that we paid him as much as we did. I have since come to grips with the dollars involved, especially when you consider that the move also was a factor in us being able to extend Dwight Howard. Also, I realize that no matter what argument is made, the question of whether any player is worth the amount of money Lewis is being paid will be debated. I choose to look at it this way: if we are able to win a championship with Rashard Lewis sometime in the next 6 seasons (the length of his contract), then his contract will be worth it. He will still be overpaid, but it will have been worth it for the Magic to overpay him. And yes, I do draw a distinction between someone being overpaid and yet still being worth the money.

There is an even simpler way to look at this, if you choose to, but it may require a bit of “creative rationalization” on your part. Here is the scenario: you are told that the Orlando Magic signed two players to long-term contracts. Those two contracts totaled roughly 120 million and 80 million respectively. The two players are Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis. Most of us with any amount of NBA knowledge would assume that Howard is getting 120 and Lewis is getting 80. Most of us would also think that those dollar amounts sound about right. In reality, those two contracts are reversed, but if you choose to view this using my scenario, we are still paying these two players those two dollar amounts.

So, if we overpaid for Rashard Lewis, we also underpaid for Dwight Howard, and it all washes out.

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Great points LOD, for any doubting Magic fan. Just remind them of the infamous "Sentinel Shaq Poll", was Shaq worth $120 million? It is hard for any fan to say ANY professional athlete deserves that kind of salary. But in terms of his not playing for the Magic cost this franchise. It would have been a bargain.

Instead of competing for championships every year, they have instead went through ten years of rebuilding and still have not reached the level of the Shaq led team.

Excellent commentary, both post, but I am also of the mindset that Shaq has won a ring everywhere he played....with of course the exception being Orlando, and we didn't want to pay him!

So the point that I leave with is that it is not so much a concern of the dollars and cents, but the intangables they bring! What is your team being denied by not having a Shaq in your huddle?? The answer can only be measured in number of championship trophies on your mantle,(not to mention the years of mediocrity) and last I looked ours was bare!!

Great blog, LOD.

This has now got me wondering about the "Dwight factor".

When the season ended, the Magic balked at making any moves, particularly relevant to the coaching situation.

Then as FA period approached, suddenly BHill is gone and Lewis is signed (with cost being no obstacle); soon after, Dwight signs his extension.

Dwight is a class kid, and is too much of a respectful and professional person to publicly embarrass anyone or to force the organization's hand using the media.

Now I can't help but wonder if, during that time of hesitation, Dwight (and/or his agent) talked with Magic management and said that they would not sign a long term extension unless both of these things happened.

You know, the view from this grassy knoll is amazing. The clarity is surreal.

quote:

There is an even simpler way to look at this, if you choose to, but it may require a bit of “creative rationalization” on your part. Here is the scenario: you are told that the Orlando Magic signed two players to long-term contracts. Those two contracts totaled roughly 120 million and 80 million respectively. The two players are Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis. Most of us with any amount of NBA knowledge would assume that Howard is getting 120 and Lewis is getting 80. Most of us would also think that those dollar amounts sound about right. In reality, those two contracts are reversed, but if you choose to view this using my scenario, we are still paying these two players those two dollar amounts.

So, if we overpaid for Rashard Lewis, we also underpaid for Dwight Howard, and it all washes out.

Wow, I don't know why that thought had never occured to me. I don't think anyone would begrudge Dwight a contract similar to what Rashard makes (except for maybe a couple of talking heads in the national media). When you look at it from that perspective it does make the contracts sound alot better.

The only player we really lost because of the Rashard contract is Darko and after this preseason I'm wondering if that's really a bad thing.