In my conversations with Reggie, it is clear he will not play next year. I've spoken with Reggie, and he is fine with it. This will go down as his final assist. |
Magic's greatest asset is his enthusiasm, the way he can lift his team up. |
Maybe this was not the right team for a guy like Ronnie. Really, Ronnie couldn't get out from under it and I hope he does in Sacramento because everyone needs a fresh start. |
My way has always been to try to support players. If anything, I've probably gone too far with Ronnie because I felt like he was going to learn how to do things. |
Our goal was to hang around where we are right now until we got everybody back. I think our team and the coaching staff have done a remarkable job keeping us [afloat] under the circumstances. |
Reggie is the one who made our transformation to the NBA real. |
Ronnie didn't say he wouldn't go there, in fact he said the opposite was true. He said he wanted go there and win games. |
That's when Mel (Daniels) and I ran the workouts. |
The way we look at is when [the Detroit brawl] went down on Nov. 19, we thought we had a chance to be champions. The core of our team is 25. With long-term contracts. They will come back at some point. |
There's no doubt in our mind he'll have an immediate impact on their team. We'll miss him very much. |
There's really nothing new to report on that. We've dealt with the issue, and now it's up to David Stern. |
Things are starting to clarify. The number of teams is down to three or four, and I'm dealing with one or two a day in a serious way. The players [being offered] are better, and I think teams realize if they're going to do it they have to offer good players. Draft choices and cap space don't equal a good player. |
This is kind of the last straw of a lot of issues. |
We hate to let James go, but because of the balance of our team now, it is best for both he and our team to make this move. |
We have a good roster with good players on the roster. I think they'll appreciate not having this in the middle of their season. |