<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Orlando Magic reached back to their successful past Tuesday and hired Brian Hill as their new coach. Hill, an assistant with the New Jersey Nets last season, took the Magic to their only NBA Finals appearance in 1995. In three-plus seasons with Orlando, he won a franchise-leading 191 games against 104 losses, and his .647 winning percentage also is the best in team history. "He is experienced, disciplined, structure-oriented and excellent in regard to game preparation and in-game strategy," Magic president and chief executive officer Bob Vander Weide said in a statement. "In addition, he brings a great deal of energy to the post. The bottom line: the organization is excited to have him back and it just feels right." Hill, who also coached the Vancouver Grizzlies, has a career coaching record of 222-227, with three postseason appearances. He takes over a roster with a good core of talent in Grant Hill, Steve Francis, Hedo Turkoglu, Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson. But the team faded late last season, coach Johnny Davis was fired in March, and Orlando finished with 36 wins. Hill's first stay in Orlando ended poorly. A locker room coup, orchestrated by disgruntled star Penny Hardaway, led to his dismissal late in February 1997. Since then, the Magic have yet to win 50 games in a season, let alone 60 as they did in 1996. That year, with Hill at the helm and Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal dominating on the court, Orlando won the Eastern Conference title in its seventh year. In the NBA Finals, the Magic were swept by the Houston Rockets. The hiring of Hill capped off a busy two days for the organization. On Monday, general manager John Weisbrod resigned after 15 months on the job.</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2067402 Even though this was expected I'm still kinda disapointed because I was really hoping we would land Flip Saunders. I havn't seen much of Coach Hill because when he was coach of the Magic I wasn't really into basketball like I am now. Hopefully he does well for us and leads us to the playoffs!
No it was a rumor before, now it is official. I guess we could merge the two topics though. If a MOD/Admin could do that it would be great.
Lets hope the fans like him and the team can play with him maybe he can bring an old school look into our play.
Yeah, I liked Hill as the Magic coach back then and he definetely treated unfairly by Penny and the rest of the team back then. I also liked how there was an article in the Orlando Sentinel about players part of the mutiny welcoming him back and are happy that he is getting a 2nd chance(Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott). I would have preferred a younger coach like Musselman(he has been my #1 choice all along), but the city of Orlando will probably welcome Hill back and there hopefully will be a new buzz around town. As long as he can get the defense to be at least middle of the pack, we should be fine.
