Magic continue with staff shakeups
The Orlando Magic continued to make staff changes after the firing of Frank Vogel and three of his assistant coaches late last week.
The team dismissed its athletic-training and strength-training staffs on Monday, including longtime head athletic trainer Keon Weise and head strength and conditioning coach Bill Burgos, league sources told the Orlando Sentinel.
Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman and High Performance Director David Tenney informed the staff members of their dismissals during a meeting Monday morning.
Asked about the moves, Joel Glass, the Magic’s chief spokesman, responded, “We don’t comment on internal staff matters.”
In September, the Magic hired Tenney to supervise the Magic’s athletic-training and strength-training departments. Tenney had worked nine seasons for Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders in a variety of roles, including as head fitness coach, sports science/ performance manager and high performance director.
This past season, Tenney determined whether injured Magic players would return to play and decided whether players returning from injuries would minutes restrictions.
Weise began his career with the Magic during the 2002-03 season as an intern and just completed his eighth year as the Magic’s head athletic trainer.
Burgos just finished his fifth season as the Magic’s head strength and conditioning coach. He worked on the Magic’s strength and conditioning staff from 2009-11 and then worked two seasons for the New York Knicks as the head strength and conditioning coach before he returned to the Magic.
Last Thursday, the Magic fired Vogel, assistant coaches Chad Forcier, Corliss Williamson and Jay face Hernandez and most of the team’s video coordinators.
Weltman and General Manager John Hammond were hired last May and said they would spend their first year with the team evaluating all areas of the basketball operations department. Throughout the 2017-18 season, staff members within the department had significant concerns that major changes would occur once the season ended.