How did a hockey scout help transform the Magic into one of the NBA's elite teams

¹²³ · Feb 3, 2009

The man largely responsible for Dwight Howard’s presence in an Orlando Magic uniform was in New Hampshire over the weekend, doing what he does the best and loves the most: scouting college players at a hockey game.

“Basketball is not hockey to me,’’ John Weisbrod was saying. “I’m still a hockey guy at heart.”

This “hockey guy” – he played at Harvard and coached in the minors – nonetheless found himself running the Magic in the critical spring and summer of 2004. Elevated to the position of general manager in March 2004, Weisbrod, who had no basketball background whatsoever, but a boatload of athletic experience as a hockey player and executive, signed off on four big decisions in the space of two weeks in June and July.

Five years later, they almost all look like no-brainers. But after that frenzied two-week stretch yielded Howard, Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu and hastened the departure of Tracy McGrady, Weisbrod was vilified by fans (had there been a blogosphere the size of today’s, it would have been exponentially worse), received bags of hate mail (some of which he still retains) and for a while had to move into an area hotel under an assumed name because of death threats. The FBI installed surveillance cameras at his house.

If you Yahoo search the words “polarizing” and “Weisbrod,” your computer will explode. It wasn’t easy.

“It’s strange looking back on how it all worked out,’’ Weisbrod said after a day of meetings with his current employer, the Boston Bruins, for whom he scouts. “I had had a history of team-building in hockey and I thought I could do the job with the Magic. We needed to blow it up and start all over and I knew it was not going to be pretty. It was a hectic time – but a good time.”
Click to expand...

Full Article

TheBeef · Feb 11, 2009

Ping pong balls are damn powerful if they bounce for you the right year....

Log in or Sign up

How did a hockey scout help transform the Magic into one of the NBA's elite teams

¹²³ ¼½¾

TheBeef Commish of FUN!

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

How did a hockey scout help transform the Magic into one of the NBA's elite teams

¹²³ ¼½¾

TheBeef Commish of FUN!

Share This Page

Useful Searches