Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal weigh in on the Orlando Magic drama: NBA
Orlando Magic superstar Dwight Howard wants the franchise to fire the coach Stan Van Gundy and the franchise owner wouldn’t think twice before choosing between Howard and SVG.
It was cleared after going through the Howard’s trade saga the coach couldn’t stay around any long. Rumour has it that the centre even came up with a list of possible coaching options with whom he would like to play.
There has been a new twist in the story, Otis Smith the general manager of Magic made it clear that the coach and player will be staying together on Orlando platform for the remainder of 2011-2012 season. The franchise will try
to persuade Howard for signing a long term contract with Magic post season this will close all doors on the coach and he will have to pack up.
This all hustle compelled the pundits of game, Charles Barkley and hall of famer Shaquille O'Neal to comment on the situation during the Magic and New York Knicks game last Thursday.
Barkley found SVG responsible for the whole drama he thinks that the coach shouldn’t have broken out the news.
"We don't know what's true, it's all conjecture," Barkley said. "I don't think Coach Van Gundy should have broken that out right now. I don't think Dwight Howard should ask to have his coach fired. I have a serious problem with
somebody in management. If they had a private conversation with Dwight Howard, it should have stayed private. They shouldn't have shared it with Coach Van Gundy”.
Howard has more than often blown whistle at the eccentric behaviour of the coach. The situation further deteriorated during the final days of trade window. But one cannot forget that the GM and coach were on the same page in those
last days as they wanted to get over the ordeal. The effective arbitration of Richard DeVos acted as watershed and there can be a possibility that the GM might be playing the role of spoiler.
Nevertheless if SVG knew of any such plot, it was not prudent to bring it forward at this time of the season. O'Neal concurred that during the same game.
"A private conversation should never be brought public," he said. "I think it was a bush league by Stan Van Gundy, personally. He's lost his team forever now”.
Magic are currently at the 6th playoff spot with 34-24 record and since the eruption of this news they have been on a downhill journey. Orlando lost the Thursday night game to Knicks, 96-80 and rolled down to a 5 game
losing streak.
Superman’s head was clearly not in the game as he tallied 8 points, 8 boards and 3 blocks. It was the 1st time since January 16th that he missed to hit double figure index.
The intractability is clearly beyond repair but the franchise must have to find a way to consolidate the things if they want to make an impact post season.
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