Finally the buzz is back in town
UCF + Magic + Apollos + Orlando City = Whew!
Our perennially bad NBA team, the Orlando Magic, is actually in a playoff hunt for the first time in the better part of a decade.
Our perpetually disappointing MLS club, Orlando City, just signed an international star who hopefully will make the franchise competitive and relevant again.
Our expansion pro football team, the Orlando Apollos, is now 3-0 after Saturday night’s 21-17 victory over Memphis and is one of the most exciting teams in the Alliance of American Football — a start-up league that just got a $250 million vote of confidence from billionaire investor Tom Dundon.
Our college football team — the UCF Knights — is coming off back-to-back undefeated regular seasons and has suddenly morphed into a national brand. Can you believe it?
Can you conceive it?
At long last, there is an actual and noticeable buzz about sports in Orlando. And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that Tiger has committed to play in next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational — one of the premier stops on the PGA Tour. And three of our favorite college basketball teams — UCF, FSU and Florida — all are vying for NCAA Tournament bids.
I know, I know, Orlando is not Boston, where the Patriots win Super Bowls seemingly every other year and the Red Sox are perpetual World Series contenders. And we’re not Atlanta — a sprawling megalopolis with teams in the NFL, NBA and MLB,
a championship MLS franchise and a host city for Super Bowls and SEC Championship Games.
But you know what, O-Town?
We’re in a much better place than we’ve been in a long, long time.
It starts, of course, with the Magic, who have been down and out for so long that we forgot what it felt like for the franchise to actually have a playoff pulse. During the previous six sad-sack seasons, we usually fall out of love with the Magic by Valentine’s Day.
This year, at least, they are within a game or two of the final playoff spots and will actually be playing meaningful games in March. Of course, it would have helped if they hadn’t lost to the Chicago TerriBulls at home on Friday night in their first game after the all-star break.
Memo to the Magic: Don’t blow this opportunity to make the playoffs when you have the 28th-easiest schedule in the league during the last six weeks of the season.
“It’s such a big difference than the past when we’d kind of be out of it at the all-star break,” Magic allstar center Nikola Vucevic said. “These last 23 games, each game is huge. It’s going to mean something, so it will be fun to play like that. You always want to play for something.”
Likewise, Orlando City hopes to being playing important games at the end of its season as well. It’s not an understatement to say the Lions have been an utter disappointment in their first four years in MLS and that new-car smell has worn off the franchise.
But at least the City gave its fans an infusion of hope this week when executive vice president of soccer operations Luiz Muzzi signed Portuguese winger and former Manchester United star Nani to a designated player contract.
“[Nani] has conquered the world in many different places and now it’s time to conquer America,” Muzzi proclaimed.
Declared Nani: “I play to win. I play to compete. I play to achieve big things.”
When asked if Nani completed the roster overhaul that included 15 old players getting unloaded and adding 13 new ones, coach James O’Connor said defiantly, “It’ll be complete when we bring an MLS championship.”
Winning championships, of course, is what it’s all about. It’s the first thing Steve Spurrier said when he came out of semi-retirement and accepted the job as the Head Ball Coach of the Apollos. “We want to win the first Alliance championship for Orlando!” Spurrier exclaimed last March.
One of Spurrier’s favorite quotes, and one he has been reciting since he was dominating the SEC at the University Florida in the 1990s, comes from the iconic golfer Byron Nelson: “When you move out of this world, the money don’t mean crap,” Spurrier told me once. “But those championships — that’s what you’ll be remembered for.”
It’s obviously great to hear Orlando coaches talking about bringing titles and trophies home to Orlando, but very few have done it in the past. The one team that has delivered is the UCF Knights, who have won four of the last six conference titles and one national championship in the last handful of years.
The Knights have set the bar for teams in this city.
Now it’s time for their professional neighbors to clear it.