Magic, Lions can make us feel better by playing

This column is an open letter to the Orlando Magic and Orlando City, our two professional sports teams who both are getting ready to begin play right here in Central Florida within the next few weeks.

With the NBA and MLS scheduled to resume their seasons at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in July, here is my sincerest request to the Magic and the Lions: Help us heal. Make us feel better. Uplift us and elevate us. Please. Amid all of the negativity in our city right now, give us something positive to think about and talk about.

Give us a temporary respite from the skyrocketing coronavirus cases in our city and a brief breather from the cable news barrage of bad news that reflect a nation seemingly more divided than ever politically, racially, economically and spiritually. Come on, Magic. Come on, Orlando City. Give us something to cheer about. Give us something to have a beer about.

Obviously, there are many more important issues facing us right now than whether the Magic can move up to the No. 7 seed and then make a playoff run or whether Orlando City can actually make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Everybody knows that sports pales in comparison to a global pandemic, social justice reforms and a landmark national election that’s just a few months away, but I’ve always said sports are so important because they are so unimportant.

Everybody needs to an escape from the real world every once in a while. As much as I’ve always loved the writings of the profound Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist David Halberstam, I once wrote him a note disagreeing with something he penned in an essay before he died.

“If, in the long run,” Halberstam once wrote, “you need sports to help you through a time of tragedy and to take your mind off a grimmer reality, then you are emotionally in so much trouble in not understanding what is real and what is fantasy that the prospects for your longterm emotional health are probably not

very good.”

That’s an eloquently written bunch of bull.

My point to Halberstam then isn’t that, as he wrote, we fans “need” sports to help us through tough times; it’s that we “want” sports to help us through tough times.

What’s so wrong with desiring distractions and diversions in times of trouble and turmoil? What’s so wrong with wanting to briefly escape grim reality to immerse yourself in a basketball game or soccer match? Are we supposed feel guilty because we want to root for our teams for a couple of hours instead of worry about our jobs?

Don’t tell me that sports hasn’t played at least some role in helping to uplift us during downtrodden times. It happened during World War II when FDR instructed Major League Baseball to keep playing in order to help the nation’s morale; it happened after 9⁄11 when the Yankees and Mets and Giants and Jets began playing baseball and football again; and it certainly happened when the Saints won the Super Bowl after New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Obviously, we don’t expect the Magic or Orlando City to win any championships, but who’s to say they can’t make a fun run when their seasons resume next month? Who’s to say Orlando City can’t win the MLS is Back Tournament? Who’s to say the Magic can’t win a playoff series for the first time in a decade?

Come on, Magic.

Come on, Orlando City.

Get into the best shape of your lives. Avoid contracting the virus by staying safe and practicing social distancing and wearing face masks when you’re out in public.

Give yourselves, your families, your fans and your city something to feel good about.

The Magic will begin play and make their postseason push at the end of July when the NBA comes to Disney to finish the regular season and the playoffs. The Magic’s first game is July 31 against the Brooklyn Nets.

If the Magic win that first game against Brooklyn, they jump over the Nets into the No. 7 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. If they can stay in the seven spot, it would mean they likely would play the Toronto Raptors in the first round of playoffs instead of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

Call me crazy, but I think the Magic have a legitimate chance of beating the Raptors, whereas they have no chance of beating the Bucks.

As for Orlando City, it begins play in the MLS Is Back Tournament on July 8 against its new state rival — expansion Inter Miami. The tournament is a chance for the Lions to start the process of restoring a beleaguered fan base’s faith in a fractured franchise. Even new coach Oscar Pareja acknowledges that his team is burdened by Orlando City’s hapless history.

“The past, you know, is something that we are dragging … and it is probably the thing that is the heaviest,” Pareja said. “People don’t trust [us], people don’t believe in [us], people don’t believe we are good or that we can be a good team.” Prove them wrong, Orlando City. Prove them wrong, Orlando Magic. The NBA and MLS are coming to your town.

Protect your turf.

Make us feel proud again.

Help us feel good again.

Give us something to cheer about. Give us something to have a beer about.