Magic looking to end this historic spell
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty ImagesShaq and Nick Anderson went into the 1995 NBA Finals with a seemingly bright Magic future ahead.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Listen, my children, and you shall hear, of the foul shots Nick Anderson was unable to steer.
'Twas 14 years ago when he stood beside Shaq, and after that day, Nick's mojo ne'er came back.
It is not a big place, the building they used to call the O-rena. One of the smaller and cozier buildings left on the NBA circuit, it could be picked up and dropped inside the Q, and an entire upper deck of Cleveland fans would have a bird's-eye view of the roof.
That small little house is the place the Magic will call home for at least one more game and one more season before they move to a new arena a half-mile away that, as of this writing, is no more than a steel superstructure.
But it'll be home sweet home for Game 6.
Or will it?
We have not yet had the opportunity to see whether Magic fans will be bold enough to overrun security, storm the court and actually try to physically embrace their heroes for advancing to the next round of the postseason.
In Round 1, they finished off the Sixers on the road in Philly.
In Round 2, they sent Celtics fans streaming downstairs to catch their trains at North Station with more than a minute left in the fourth quarter when it became clear the Magic were moments away from finishing off the defending champion Celtics.
In Round 3, which is where we sit now, they'll have an opportunity to send LeBron James back to Akron to spend the month of June on his sofa -- if they are able to shake off Thursday night's fourth quarter and finish off the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.
But in order to do so, they'll have to rid their old home of its ghosts.
And no ghost story merits retelling more than the tale of Anderson, whose inability to seal Game 1 of the 1995 Finals from the free-throw line went on to haunt both him and the Magic franchise.
It was Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Houston Rockets on the night of June 7, 1995, and the Magic were ahead by three points late in the fourth quarter when Anderson stepped to the line with a chance to all but ice the win.
Miss, miss.
The lead remained at three. The Rockets were unable to score on their next possession, and Anderson -- a career 70 percent free-throw shooter -- returned to the line in the final seconds with two more chances to make it a four-point game.
Miss, miss.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Kenny Smith hit a 3-pointer to tie the game and send it to overtime, and the Rockets went on to sweep the Magic 4-0 for their second consecutive championship. Anderson never recovered from his failure. His free-throw percentage dropped all the way to 40 percent two seasons later, and his legacy -- rather than being known as the first player ever drafted by the then-expansion Magic -- was forever defined by his epic misses from 15 feet away.
A year after that meltdown, Shaquille O'Neal left Orlando to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers -- his decision made easier when, as a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, he came to town on Team USA's pre-Olympic tour just as the Orlando Sentinel was running a front-page story that said nearly 90 percent of Magic fans did not feel O'Neal was worthy of the salary he was seeking.
By 1998, the Magic were no longer a playoff team. In the summer of '99, Chuck Daly retired as their coach and Penny Hardaway was traded to Phoenix. In 2000, they renounced their rights to Chauncey Billups in order to clear cap space for the signing of Tracy McGrady and the sign-and-trade deal that brought Grant Hill from Detroit in exchange for Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins.
From there, Hill's ankle problems derailed his career, McGrady was eventually traded for Steve Francis, Doc Rivers was run out of town shortly after the Magic blew a 3-1 series lead and lost in the first round to Detroit in 2003, Fran Vazquez was drafted but decided to stay in Spain, and Darko Milicic became the go-to guy by the time the 2006-07 Magic ended a three-year playoff drought only to be swept in the first round by the Pistons.
If you want to go back and find the last time the Magic won a big, big postseason game in their little bandbox, you again have to go all the way back to Game 7 of the 1995 Eastern Conference finals, when Orlando bounced back from a 27-point loss to Indiana in Game 6 and crushed Reggie Miller and the Pacers by 24 points to advance to the stage on which Anderson would earn the moniker "Nick the Brick."
Which brings us to today, and the question of the day as it relates to this rather long-winded history lesson:
Does any of that history matter?
Is this the Magic's last, best chance to finish off the Cavaliers, given the fact that they'd have to go back to Cleveland for a Monday night Game 7 in a building where the Cavs have lost only three times all season?
That's a variation of the question coach Stan Van Gundy was asked afterward, whether he'll look at Game 6 like it's really a Game 7.
"No, it's Game 6. I can count. I'm good at math. It is Game 6," said Van Gundy, who graduated from SUNY Brockport in 1981 with bachelor's degrees in English and physical education.
Good thing he didn't major in history.
Because if he did, the haunted history of the place they used to call the O-rena might loom just a little bit larger in the minds of him and his Orlando Magic when they step on the court at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Sheridan, click here.
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