I don’t follow basketball, I could certainly not care less about the Orlando Magic, but this has been all over the news here, and I didn’t see a thread.
In a nutshell, the Orlando Magic moved their coach to the front office and in a big splashy press conference, made the announcement that Billy Donovan, the man who coached the Florida Gators to two national championships, was going to be the new coach.
Blah blah blah, Donovan was excited about the opportunity, rah rah rah, looking forward to the next stage of his career.
Big whoop, sez I.
But then Monday, it gets interesting. Donovan, it seems, has a change of heart. He wants to stay put in Gainseville. Much speculation…did he sign the contract or not? Did the Magic hold a press conference before getting a signature on the dotted line?
Nope. Apparently, Donovan’s wife and kids don’t want to move to Orlando. That’s fine, all well and good, but it means this idjit made a life-changing decision without consulting his family. :smack:
The lawyers are still working out the legal mess, so no one’s talking yet. But what a dipstick!
The Orlando Sentinel this morning talked about how the Orlando Magic will make him break the contract if he wants to change his mind. Initially we were led to believe the Magic were going to let him out of it without penalty, but it seems that isn’t the case. My dad was livid yesterday when he found out that Donovan had backed out.
I just shrug as a Magic employee I would like to get and keep Donovan but in the end we just need a coach.
His excuse for wanting out of the contract is that his wife and kids don’t want to move. Reports are his wife looked very unhappy at the press conference.
So either he didn’t talk to his wife and kids, or there’s something else going on. Either way he signed a contract and made a bunch of people look like fools.
I still haven’t seen any story that says he changed his mind because his family doesn’t want to move. The story you linked to says he wasn’t commenting, and everything I’ve read indicates he just decided leaving was the wrong move. I was surprised he took the job at all, and he ended up looking like a schmuck.
I’m waiting for the sports figure or politician to have the nads to give a press conference and announce they’re taking a job because they want to spend less time with their family.
Anyone who feels “betrayed” will quickly get over it- how dare the coach for the university basketball team I support ever think of taking another job :rolleyes:
I’m not interested per se…I just think his sudden turnaround for reasons of family is odd. If you were to be offered a multi-year, multimillion dollar contract in another city, don’t you think you’d at least ask if your family is on board?
I think you have bad information from your local media. Everything I’ve heard here has been that he felt bad about leaving UF and had a change of heart. Bad that it happened, but not the end of the world, and a lot more human than most “follow the money” coaches.
Legal question: Isn’t there some law that says you can get out of a contract, no questions asked, if no goods or services have been transferred in the execution of said contract?
I could be wrong, but I’ve heard something like this on a few occasions…
