La Arroyomania!

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Adina Ozturk knows little about basketball, the NBA or the Orlando Magic, but she has learned what Carlos Arroyo means to this town.

She can't escape it.

Ever since a picture of Arroyo in his Magic uniform was plastered last month on a billboard that overlooks Boss Motors -- the used-car lot where she works on Semoran Boulevard -- business has been booming.

"La Arroyomania, ha llegado."

Arroyo mania, it has arrived.

"I'd say that 80 percent of our customers here are Hispanic," Ozturk said last week. "And probably 80 percent of them ask about Carlos Arroyo. It's not our billboard, but everyone comes in and asks about it.

"I've got to go to a game and see what this is all about."

Angel Garcia, who owns the business and speaks little English, lights up when a visitor points to the billboard that casts a shadow on his car lot. Garcia moved here from Puerto Rico less than a year ago. He knows cars, and he knows basketball, too.

"Carlos Arroyo. Yes. Great player. Great man," Garcia said.

In NBA circles, Arroyo may be considered a journeyman -- already with his fifth NBA team at age 26 -- but to the Central Florida Puerto Rican population, he is treated like LeBron James.

"It's amazing, the support and love people here have shown me," said Arroyo, who will hope to help lead the Magic against Toronto tonight as the team continues a late-season playoff push. "It's a responsibility to do well for them, and it really motivates me."

To the Magic, Arroyo -- who is listed as day-to-day with a strained hamstring -- has become a much-needed playmaking point guard and a perfect way to tap into the previously tough-to-crack Hispanic market.

"Carlos coming to Orlando was like Michael Jordan moving into my neighborhood," said Mario Nazario of Kissimmee, who was at TD Waterhouse Centre last month to watch a basketball game between two pro teams from Puerto Rico.

Arroyo arrived almost two months ago in a trade with the Detroit Pistons, a veteran team that underutilized him. The Magic have capitalized on his basketball skills and popularity among Hispanics. Numerous guards in the league are averaging his 21.9 minutes, 10.6 points and 3 assists -- figures that double what he put up in Detroit. There just isn't anyone who has created the stir in an ethnic community that he has here.

"Everyone knows Carlos Arroyo," said Luis Otero, a native of Puerto Rico who was waiting one day last week outside the Habana Grill in Winter Park, hoping to land a job there. "I am proud he is here in Orlando. Everyone is. We are all proud of our heritage."

Arroyo is the fifth player from Puerto Rico to reach the NBA but is the only one currently on a roster. He is a perfect fit in Central Florida, which boasts the United States' largest Puerto Rican population outside of New York City.

Hispanics are the largest minority group in Central Florida -- about 370,000 -- and that number includes an estimated 200,000 Puerto Ricans. The Magic have courted Hispanic fans for several years but never managed to ignite their basketball fever until Arroyo arrived.

Since the trade, the crowds at the Waterhouse have been noticeably louder in support of the Magic. The day after acquiring Arroyo, the team sold 150 single-game tickets in the first hour, and the Waterhouse was sold out the next night for his debut. In addition, the team sold more than 100 Arroyo jerseys in the first few days he was here.

"Normally, you have to sign a superstar to have an impact like he has had in Orlando," said Joey Colon, the Magic's Spanish radio play-by-play announcer. "Everyone is jumping on board because now anyone who is Puerto Rican, anywhere, has an interest in the Magic. People are calling me from around the country, asking about him."</div>

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