ORLANDO, Fla. -- Aside from the requisite fire-breathing backboards, it was a subdued celebration the Magic hosted Wednesday night, their last season opener at Amway Arena. They'll move into new digs across town next season, with the hopes that they'll be doling out rings at the home opener, not shining a spotlight on some trivial banner.
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| Carter: 'You're not always fortunate enough to get traded to your hometown and to a team like this. I'm thankful.' (Getty Images) |
But the Magic will, I promise you. Despite the woeful competition from the Sixers -- Princeton called, it wants its offense back -- you could see the makings of an Orlando team that will be fully capable of playing deep into June.
"You look around, this is like heaven," Carter said as he leaned against his locker after scoring 15 points in his Orlando debut. "Now when I come off pick-and-rolls, if a guy double-teams, I have this guy [Dwight Howard] who's an All-Star. I have this guy, Ryan Anderson, who can shoot. I'm surrounded with so many guys who can do so many things, it's heaven. Why not make it work?"
Someone mentioned misunderstood NBA players on Wednesday, and the name Rasheed Wallace came up. But to me, Carter is right up there. The game has always come so effortlessly to him that those who don't know him come away with a negative impression. Especially those in Toronto, where Carter began his career and then demanded to be traded. He was sent to New Jersey, and you know the rest. Or if you don't, you can follow along with Carter over the next few days. After his debut with the Magic -- who are 9-0 in the Carter era, if you count preseason -- it's "this is your life" time. Orlando plays at New Jersey on Friday night and at Toronto on Sunday.
"It doesn't always work out like this, as you know," Carter said. "You're not always fortunate enough to get traded to your hometown and to a team like this. Sometimes you get traded to a bad situation. I'm thankful, and that's why I'm trying to take advantage of it."
Carter received a text message from Nets president Rod Thorn on Tuesday, wishing him luck -- "but not against us," the text read, and you could just hear Thorn's trade mark "teee-heee-HEEE!" as he typed that. Thorn knows the real Carter, knows that he was a better teammate than outsiders understood, a tougher hombre than anyone imagined, and a good guy, too.
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Recap: Magic 120, 76ers 106 |
"He's not a good person," said Sixers president Ed Stefanski, who was Thorn's right-hand man in New Jersey when Carter was there. "He's a great person."
Somewhere along the way, people got the wrong impression. The trade demand in Toronto, which Carter handled poorly, never went away. The way Carter seems to come up lame after the most incidental contact was in stark contrast to the injuries he always played through. A member of the Nets organization once told me that Richard Jefferson was the toughest player he's ever had there, and Carter was a close second.
But the stakes have never been higher in Carter's career than they are now. The funny thing is, the situation might just fit his mild personality perfectly. He is not going to be the dominant personality; Howard had better do that, because that's his job. What Carter can do is pass better than people think and score better than any teammate Howard's had thus far in his career. But at this point -- at the ripe old age of 32 -- Carter doesn't need numbers or accolades. He just needs to fit in.
"It's funny," Carter said, "because all my friends are telling me they're saying on TV that they don't think I'll fit in."
And it's true. Of the 11 national NBA writers surveyed during preseason by the Orlando Sentinel, not one picked the Magic to win the East. (This NBA writer didn't participate, though I would've completed the sweep and voted Boston No. 1.)
"People say, 'Oh, he's a scorer,' and I score the ball when need be," Carter said. "But I'm also a willing passer. When you need me to score, I'll put the ball in the hole or shoot the ball when I'm open. But at the same time, I'm going to pass the ball. We have a lot of guys who can pass the ball. For me, it's not about how many points I can score or how many points I can average. It's how many wins can this team get? It's about winning by any means more than anything else."
They all say that. Shaquille O'Neal said that in Phoenix and he's saying that in Cleveland. (Don't look now, but the Cavs are 0-2.) The Celtics' Big Three said that when they were united two years ago, and they kept their word. Now, the Magic believe it's their turn.
"Your first two or three years, you're trying to prove yourself -- to the NBA, to the world, to you guys -- that you belong, that you can score against the best players, the best defenders," Carter said. "It's not about that now. ... You have to put it all aside and say, 'What's the big picture? Do you want to worry about your career averages or do you want to win a ring?'"
Carter has more in common with Wallace than being misunderstood and getting traded to a championship contender this past summer. Wallace's talents fit the Celtics' style and complement the core players who were already there. Same with Carter, who got the ball on Orlando's very first play of the season and drained a 17-foot jumper. He picked his spots, handled the ball in pick-and-roll situations, and made the right play. Consider the competition, but the Magic had 100 points after three quarters and wound up making 16 of 29 from 3-point range with their best shooter, Rashard Lewis, sitting home due to his 10-game suspension.
"The successful organizations in this league don't sort of pick players willy-nilly," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I think there's a philosophy behind how you're going to play. You go out and get people that are not only good players, but they fit the way you play. We've got a good center combination with Dwight and
And it won't be by chance if the Magic are in the thick of the race back to the Finals seven months from now. Or even if there's a very different kind of opening-night celebration exactly one year from now.
"That's where we want to be," Carter said. "On paper, we should be a good team and that's what we want to go out and do."
That's the plan, anyway. A pretty good one, from where I'm sitting.
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