Dwyane Wade insisted that the custody battle over his children will not affect him down the stretch, but that it may cause him to pass on playing for Team USA this summer. “My kids,” said Wade. “This is the most important thing to me. Basketball is going to be there. So if I’m not able to compete this summer, I think everyone will understand the reason behind it.” He has had a lot on his plate off the court, but there’s no evidence it has hurt him on the court.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

Orlando: Dwight Howard posted a monster line on Thursday, scoring 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting with 20 rebounds, one assist, one steal, and five blocks. He didn’t commit a personal foul and when he disagreed with a call just before halftime he showed excellent form on his argumentation. That, along with Stan Van Gundy’s commitment to increasing his playing time

Orlando: Jameer Nelson scored 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting (including two 3-pointers) with three rebounds, seven assists, and two steals on Thursday.
After a three-point, seven-rebound outing on Tuesday he has redeemed himself with two respectable performances including tonight. His thumb hasn’t surfaced in any reports lately, but with just three games next week he is a mediocre play given his recent struggles.

Cleveland: Anderson Varejao (hamstring) has been upgraded to questionable for Friday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. Beat writer Brian Windhorst points out that coach Mike Brown sounds like he wants to rest him for one more game, and with the Cavs in control of home-court advantage for the playoffs there’s no reason to rush him back.

New York: Wilson Chandler (left groin strain) will have a 6-8 week rehabilitative process before he can set foot on a basketball court.

Memphis: Coach Lionel Hollins said Thursday that Marc Gasol will miss the rest of the season with a partially torn neck muscle. He aggravated it in Wednesday’s game and couldn’t reach for rebounds or attempt shots, and with the Memphis Grizzlies basically out of playoff contention the news is hardly surprising. In his stead, Hasheem Thabeet should see plenty of developmental minutes

Sacramento: Spencer Hawes (knee) is out for the rest of the season. The official injury is a “deep bone contusion and an irregular signal in the joint line in left knee.” We’re not sure exactly what that means for Hawes going forward,

Dwyane Wade scored 36 points on 12-of-26 shooting (including three 3-pointers) with 10 rebounds, seven assists, a steal, and a block in the Heat’s 108-102 overtime loss to the Orlando Magic on Thursday. He is playing like a man possessed lately, averaging 32.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 2.2 steals per game in the month of March.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

Orlando: Dwight Howard got his 15th technical foul of the season, and played just 31 foul-plagued minutes on his way to 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting with 11 rebounds, one assist, and four blocks in Thursday’s win over the Miami Heat. One more technical foul for him and he will be suspended for a regular season game, which only serves to put owners on edge for the rest of the season, since it’s unlikely he’ll be on their benches unless his free throw woes and/or turnovers are proving to be too meddlesome.

Orlando: Matt Barnes logged 40 minutes against the Heat on Thursday despite his sprained toe, and finished with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting (including a three) with nine rebounds and three assists. Surely the Magic didn’t want him to have to play this much, but with Mickael Pietrus (ankle) out for at least a week they don’t really have a choice. Barnes defended Dwyane Wade for much of the game, illustrating how much Orlando needs him, and luckily for him his next game isn’t until Monday.

Charlotte: Peja Stojakovic (groin) said Thursday that he still doesn’t have a timetable for his return as he has hit the halfway point of his original two-week projection. “It has improved,” said Stojakovic. “But I wouldn’t say a great deal. I’d say it’s better this last week, since we started the road trip. It’s getting better.” These are not words that fantasy owners should be counting on, as it’s looking like he’ll be back for just a handful of games.

Oakland: Kelenna Azubuike said Thursday that he is leaning towards taking a $3.3 million player option available to him for the 2010-11 season, which is the last year of his contract. “I’m leaning toward a certain way – coming back,” said Azubuike, which is a welcoming piece of news for the Warriors.

Washington: Andray Blatche (sprained left ankle) said that he will play Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, but coach Flip Saunders has been a bit less optimistic saying he is 50-50 to play. “It’s a little tender. I’m going to try to play – no, I’m not going to try, I’m going to play,” Blatche said. “I’m just going to work through it.” He also added, that “the pain, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being worst, it’s probably a five.” This will be a case of a player’s heart versus a coach’s mind, and owners would be wise to heed Saunders’ assessment of “50-50.”

Fox Sports’ Stephen A. Smith is reporting that the Sixers appear to be on the verge of signing Allen Iverson, possibly as early as in the upcoming week. With rookie Jrue Holiday set to fill in for Lou Williams over the next two months, the Sixers could use the help. In addition, the number of tickets that Iverson would sell has to interest Philly. “We simply can’t just ignore the upside he’d bring,” a team source said. “Not with our situation.” Iverson appears to be buncing around the league like a pin-ball this season.

Elsewhere around the NBA:

Orlando: The Orlando Magic narrowly defeated the Bucks on Saturday, 100-98, led by Dwight Howard’s 25 points, 20 rebounds and four blocks. In the past two games, Howard is averaging 3.5 points, 18.5 rebounds, and 4.0 blocks. Even though he went 5-of-10 from the free-throw line, Howard is emerging as the leagues most dominate center.

Milwakee: Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova scored 20 points and pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds vs. the Magic on Saturday. Ilyasova shed his protective facemask before the game, but he wasn’t tentative whatsoever. He connected on 8-of-18 FGs, including two 3-pointers, and looks like a waiver wire steal.

Utah: Jazz PF Carlos Boozer’s continued his stellar play on Saturday, as he led the Utah Jazz with 26 points (11-of-16 FGs), 12 rebounds, seven assists, one steal and one block. Boozer has been on fire as of late, scoring 20+ points in seven of the last eight games. He is also averaging 5.0 assists over the past five games, a trend we hope (but are skeptical) he can sustain.

Utah: Jazz F Andrei Kirilenko strained his back during Saturday’s game and will not return in the second half. Kirilenko has been playing well recently and hopes to make it back on the court soon.

Cleveland: Cavs PG Mo Williams made 7-of-7 three-pointers on Saturday, scoring 25 points in a win over the Mavericks. He had one assist, zero steals and four turnovers (atrocious numbers for any PG), but we’re still seeing sevens. And if you had lingering questions about his sore right middle finger, consider this the answer.

Cleveland: Delonte West racked up 10 points and 10 assists for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday, playing 28 inspired minutes off the bench.

Charlotte: Gerald Wallace posted 14 points and 14 rebounds on Saturday, leading the Bobcats to their fourth straight victory. Wallace has six consecutive double-doubles, and he’s starting to make his three-pointers. He has made 5-of-10 threes in the past two games after shooting 3-of-21 (14%) in the first 14 games

2008-09 NBA Team Preview – Orlando Magic

2008 Record: 52-30
Division Finish: 1st – Southeast
2008 Playoffs: Lost, 4-1, to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Semifinals

Head Coach: Stan Van Gundy
Season: Going into second season
Record At Orlando: 52-30
Career Record: 163-103

Offseason Acquisitions:
Signed Mike Wilks, G, 2.7 ppg, 1.3 rpg, Free Agent
Signed Jeremy Richardson, F, 1.6 ppg, 0.4 rpg, Atlanta Hawks
Signed Dwayne Jones, C, 1.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg, Cleveland Cavaliers
Signed Anthony Johnson, G, 5.6 ppg, 3.8 apg, Sacramento Kings
Signed Mickael Pietrus G-F, 7.2, ppg, 3.7 rpg, Golden State Warriors

Offseason Transactions:
Excersiced option on guard JJ Redick through 2009-10
Resigned center Adonal Foyle

Offseason Losses:
James Augustine, F, 1.6 ppg., 1.2, rpg, Waived
Carlos Arroyo, G, 6.9 ppg., 3.5, apg, Free Agent
Kenyon Dooling, G, 8.1 ppg, 1.8, apg, Traded to the New Jersey Nets
Maurice Williams, G-F, 9.3 ppg, 3.1 ppg., Signed with Atlanta Hawks
Pat Garrity, F, 2.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg., Retired
Bo Outlaw, F, 2.0 ppg, 0.0 rpg. , Wavied

Rookies:
Courtney Lee, G, 20.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg., Western Kentucky

The Skinny:
Outside of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, no player in the NBA may be more exciting than Orlando’s Dwight Howard. I haven’t watched the Slam Dunk competition in I don’t know how many years, but I was tuned into last year’s competition based solely on the performance of Howard. He did some amazing things with the ball and along with James could be the new face of the NBA.

Prior to Howard’s arrival in O-Town the team was struggling. They finished seventh in the Atlantic division and as a result were able to take Howard with the No. 1 pick. Within three years he had the team back in the playoffs despite a sub-.500 record which just goes to show that the East is a very weak conference.

Last season the Magic won the Southeast Division with a 52-30 record and won their first playoff series since the 1995-96 campaign as they beat Toronto, 4-1, in the first round. Their record was their best since that 95-96 campaign when they lost to the Bulls in the conference finals and was 31 wins better than the year before Howard was drafted. They were subsequently tossed from the playoffs by Detroit, 4-1.

Despite not being the prototypical NBA center that you normally think of at only 265 pounds on a 6-foot-11 frame, Howard is one of the best in the league. He averaged 20.7 points per game and 14.2 rebounds per game. He led the NBA with 69 double doubles and his 14.2 rpg. was a full rebound better than the next closest player (Marcus Camby).

As good as Howard is, he obviously can’t do it all by himself. He’s got a pair of really good supporting cast members in guard Hedo Turkoglu and forward Rashard Lewis. Turkoglu was second on the team at 19.5 ppg while grabbing 5.7 rpg. and handing out 5.0 assists per game. Lewis was just a shade back at 18.2 ppg., 4.2 rpg. and 5.4 apg. Also doing a solid job was point guard Jameer Nelson as he produced 10.9 ppg. and handed out 5.6 apg.

The problem with the Magic isn’t a lack of production at the offensive end of the court, it’s at the defensive end, particularly during the playoffs. Orlando ranked sixth in the NBA last year at 104.4 ppg. and were pretty decent at 99.0 ppg. on defense, which surprisingly ranked 11th.

However, as anyone will tell you defense is what wins you championships. If you don’t believe me, the top three defensive teams in the NBA – Detroit (90.1 ppg.), Boston (90.3 ppg.) and San Antonio (90.6 ppg.) – all made the conference finals. The Phoenix Suns have been mentioned a lot the last few years as a potential champion, but their model of all-out offense has yet to come to fruition. Twice the Suns got to the Western Finals, only to be beaten 4-1 by San Antonio and 4-2 by Dallas. Last year they dropped another 4-1 series to the Spurs.

When going up against a great defensive team like the Pistons in the playoffs, Orlando scored a mere 91.6 ppg. This shows the flaws in the idea of just trying to outscore opponents and not putting much stock in playing defense. Nine times out of 10 the better defensive team will win. Also, because Orlando had to work harder to score, they didn’t have the energy to play the necessary defense – not that they do anyways – but Detroit was only 0.5 ppg. under its regular season average of 90.7 ppg.

The playoffs is all about who can stick to their game plan and go about business as usual. Unless you’ve got a serious injury, the playoffs is not the time to have to change approach. Detroit was able to follow its game plan better than Orlando and the Pistons were the one who were able advance.

Between Howard and Lewis the Magic seem to have the defensive end pretty well covered. Where they are struggling on defense is the back court. Richard Hamilton scored more than 30 against Orlando in the final two playoff games and Chauncey Billups tossed in 28 in game two.

Prediction:
Orlando is a pretty solid team, but they need to get Howard more help. San Antonio and Detroit have five great players on the floor while the Lakers have a super star and a great player in Pau Gasol to help out Bryant. While Lewis, Turkoglu and Nelson are all pretty solid, they’re not great. The Magic must make a decision to either get one big gun, kind of like a Scotty Pippen, or build up the four other guys to be pretty good.

They lost Maurice Wiliams, who averaged 9.3 ppg., to Atlanta and replaced him with Mickael Pietrus from Golden State and his 7.2 ppg. Shooting guard JJ Reddick was one of the best college players of all time, but he has been a dud as a pro. Maybe he’ll get better or maybe he’s just going to be another in a long string of Duke players that are great in college but a flop in the league. If he could ever rise to anything close to the level that he had in Durham he could be that great No. 2 guy.

Rookie guard CourtneyLee has some potential to be a good player. He scored 20.4 ppg. at Western Kentucky, which is a pretty solid program that you’ve probably never heard much about. Lee is a good start, but he’s not going to be enough. Orlando should have another good record so they’re not going to have a draft spot where they can really get an impact player. To move up to the Detroit, Boston and Clevelands of the world they’ll have to make a trade or sign a big free agent.

There might not be a worse division in the NBA than the Southeast so unless Howard gets hurt the Magic should have no problems winning the division again this year. Orlando should win a first round series again, but that’s as far as they are going to get. Unless Stan Van Gundy can get the Magic to play better defense in crunch time they’ll be watching the conference semifinals from home.

The Orlando Magic is one of the fastest rising teams in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They boast one of the league’s best big men in Slam Dunk champion Dwight Howard, and they are coming fresh off a 52-win season.

The Magic play their home games at the Amway Arena. Their head coach is Stan Van Gundy, and their general manager is former Magic player Otis Smith.

Early Years

The Magic entered the NBA in 1989 as part of a four-team expansion effort with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets. Their first coach was Matt Guokas, and their first draft pick was shooting guard Nick Anderson. The expansion draft, which allowed certain players to be chosen from each team in the league, brought players like Reggie Theus and Scott Skiles (who would later set a league record for assists in a game with 30). The first team went 18-64.

After drafting forward Dennis Scott out of Georgia Tech in 1990, the Magic improved rapidly. In their second season, they put up 31 wins and served notice as a promising young team.

Between 1989 and 1992, the Magic averaged 23 wins. But thing were about to change.

The Shaq Draft

In 1992, the Magic won the first pick in the draft lottery and selected seven-foot center Shaquille O’Neal out of Louisiana State University. O’Neal, a powerful, agile center, paid immediate dividends, and the Magic improved from 21 wins to 41 wins. Shaq was named an All-Star starter as a rookie, the first player in NBA history to be so honored.

Picking up a Penny

The Magic lucked out again the following year, winning the first pick in the lottery in spite of a .500 record. They selected forward Chris Webber out of Michigan, and traded him to the Golden State Warriors for Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway.

The combination of a dynamic point guard and a bruising center turned the Magic into one of the NBA’s best teams nearly overnight. They won 50 games in the 1993-94 season and placed second in the division, losing to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

The following season, the Orlando Magic were considered a contender for the title. They placed first in the Atlantic Division with 57 wins and beat the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls (minus the retired Michael Jordan) before exacting revenge against the Pacers in the conference finals.

In the NBA Finals, the Orlando Magic faced Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Shaq was no match for the wily veteran center, and the Magic were no match for the Rockets, who swept Orlando in four games.

The 1995 season saw the championship window begin to close for the Magic. The team was intact, but Jordan was back from his first retirement. Despite 60 wins and another division title, the Magic lost to the Bulls in the conference finals, 4-0.

Thus ended the dynamic duo of Shaq and Penny.

Shaq leaves for La-La Land

In 1996, Shaquille O’Neal left the Magic as a free agent and joined the L. A. Lakers. The Magic were still a playoff team even without O’Neal, but they were no longer a title contender. The team traded Hardaway to the Phoenix Suns in 1999.

2007-08 Season

The Orlando Magic have re-established themselves as one of the most dangerous teams in the East. Led by high school phenom Dwight Howard, the team won 52 games and the Southeast Division title. They beat the Toronto Raptors in the first round before falling to the Detroit Pistons in five games.

2008-09 Outlook

With Howard, point guard Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu and J.J. Redick, the Magic have a talented young nucleus and figure to be a favorite to repeat as Southeast Division champs. Whether or not that translates to a deep playoff run remains to be seen.

Greatest Players

Nick Anderson, Grant Hill, Dwight Howard, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Shaquille O’Neal

When James Naismith invented the game of basketball at the Springfield, Mass. YMCA in 1891, he was simply looking for a distraction for his rowdy young charges, who were often stuck indoors due to the harshly cold Massachusetts winters. Little did he know that his creation would one day evolve into a globalized, multi-billion-dollar sensation known as the National Basketball Association.

What follows is a brief history of the NBA, from its inception just after World War II to its gold medal winning Redeem Team, which recently won the gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It was 1946. WWII was over and America was still basking in the glow of victory. Americans once again had entertainment dollars to spend, and in June, a group of sports arena owners got together with an idea on how to get people to spend some of that money on sports. A professional basketball league, with ten teams, comprising an East division and a West division. By June 6, the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA, was born.

The first game in BAA history was played on November 1, 1946, in Toronto, between the Toronto Huskies and the visiting New York Knickerbockers. The Knickerbockers won that game, 68-66.
The BAA owners had a distinct advantage over the competing National Basketball League, or NBL. They owned large arenas in the nation’s major cities and could command large crowds, thereby making more money. Though the NBL was probably the BAA’s equal when it came to quality of play, in the end the BAA had the superior dollars. In August 1949, the BAA and the NBL merged together, forming the National Basketball Association, or the NBA.

With the merger, the league now had seventeen teams, in cities large and small, across the United States. The league trimmed this number down to a record-low eight teams in 1954. The Kings, Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Hawks, 76ers, Pistons, and the Knickerbockers are all still part of today’s NBA.

The quality of basketball back then was, understandably, not quite like what we see today. One of the reasons for this discrepancy was that, in the 1940s, African-American players were not allowed to compete in the NBA. That changed in 1950, when the NBA broke the color barrier by introducing several black players, including Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton. Clifton was the first black player to sign an NBA contract, while Lloyd was the first to play in an NBA game.

Another change that positively affected the league was the advent of the 24-second shot clock in 1954. Before then, teams could use stall tactics against superior opponents to keep the score down. It was a tactically sound strategy, but it made for boring basketball. With the shot clock, a team had 24 seconds to attempt a shot. If no shot was taken (or if the ball hadn’t touched the rim) before time expired, the team lost possession.

The 1960s saw an expansion of the league from nine teams to fourteen. The decade also saw the inception of the NBA’s most formidable competitor, the American Basketball Association, or ABA.

The two leagues competed fiercely for spectators as well as top players. The NBA had the advantage of being in most major cities, while the ABA allowed undergraduates to join. That’s how Julius Erving, known as Dr. J., ended up in the upstart ABA. Rick Barry, the NBA’s leading scorer, also left for the ABA.

The NBA continued to expand and finally won the bidding war with the ABA. The two leagues agreed to a limited merger in 1976. This increased the number of NBA teams to 22.

In 1979, in an effort to further increase scoring and excitement, the NBA added the three-point shot, which was actually an ABA innovation.

The 1980s was arguably the most important decade in league history. This decade saw the epic rivalry between Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson and the Lakers won five titles; Bird won three with the Celtics.

The 1980s also introduced the world to Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player in the history of the NBA. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1984. Together with Scottie Pippen, Jordan’s Bulls won six NBA championships in the 1990s.

Jordan, Bird and Johnson helped form the 1992 Olympic basketball team, popularly known as the Dream Team. It was the first U.S. Olympic team to use NBA All-Stars. The team cruised to an easy gold medal. Since then, the NBA has been closely associated with USA Basketball.

The Chicago Bulls dynasty was broken up in 1998. Since then, the Western Conference has won the majority of the league championships. The San Antonio Spurs, led by Tim Duncan, have won four titles in that time span, while the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, won three. O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the 2004 season, and after promising to deliver a championship to Florida, he and Dwyane Wade did exactly that in 2006, when they beat the Dallas Mavericks, four games to two, in the NBA Finals.

The most recent NBA champions are the Boston Celtics, who beat the resurgent Los Angeles Lakers four games to two. It was the Celtics’ first championship since 1986 and the Lakers’ first Finals’ appearance since Bryant and O’Neal fell to the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

After a subpar showing in the 2004 Olympics that resulted in a bronze medal, the NBA’s best players fielded a different team for the 2008 Games. Known popularity as the “Redeem Team,” the U.S. men’s basketball team was designed to bring the Olympic gold back to the country where the game was invented. Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski led a team made up of the following players: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, and Deron Williams.

The “Redeem Team” accomplished its mission in the Beijing Games, beating Spain in the gold medal game, 118-107.

During the tenure of the current NBA commissioner, David Stern, the league has begun to expand its reach beyond the United States. Several players from foreign countries have become prominent players in the NBA (including Yao Ming, Manu Ginobili and 2007 league MYP Dirk Nowitzki), and the league’s games are currently televised in more than 200 countries.