After trudging through years in the NBA’s doldrums, the Orlando Magic spent a good chunk of the last decade as an afterthought in the landscape of the league.

The Magic set out to change that, constructing a new young core that has since experienced success while building continuity with one another. It’s translate to victories on the floor and excitement off of it, as the Central Florida community has fully re-embraced its fun, up-and-coming team.

It came to a head in the 2024 NBA playoffs, where the Magic’s new core made its NBA playoff debut as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. Hosting three games versus the opposing Cleveland Cavaliers, the Magic handled business and protected home court at the Kia Center.

For the first time in a long time, there was palpable energy and buzz surrounding what the Magic had built. They aren’t the only ones to notice.

“You don’t really think of Orlando as this great fan base, but you go down there and you’re like, ‘These people are passionate about the Magic,” said Kevin Spies, a cohost of “The Bench Seat” podcast with Cavaliers forward Georges Niang.

He was in attendance for game three of the series, the first one Orlando hosted at home. The Magic cruised to a 121-83 victory in the contest.

“The game was a spectacle,” Spies continued. “Just the show of the game. The lights, the timeout stuff they have going on, the mascot. They put on a full-on show, and the crowd was just wild. It was really, really cool to see. I was surprised by it.”

Then, Niang himself chimed in.

“It honestly seemed like Orlando was super ready to have playoff basketball,” the Cavs forward said. “When we got down there for game three, ever since I’ve been in the NBA, Orlando – hit or miss, right?

“It was like, ‘This place is f-ing loud.”

Since the last playoff game had come and gone, 1,852 days had passed. A dull roar was evident from the tip, and after a slow start, the Magic ignited it’s home fans into a frenzy that maintained throughout the evening.

That was a new experience for many of the young Magic players, who had never been in such a setting before in their careers. It certainly was fresh for Franz in his third year in the NBA.

“The first year, I felt like it was a road game every time we played at home almost, especially if we played the big-name teams,” Franz said. “Then the second year, with Paolo (Banchero) coming in, we got some more wins and you could feel it a little bit.

“But then this third year, we felt the love from the city so much. People were so excited about watching us and going to the games, and I thought that was a really cool experience for everybody on the team. We had been through tough times, and it wasn’t always like that where people were talking about us.”

There’s something to be said about the maturity of a team understanding the significance of a moment it’s in given its foreign nature beforehand. The Magic’s run of success created an occasion worth celebrating, then they followed through and capitalized on it.

According to ESPN’s annual attendance report, Orlando had the 24th-most fans attend home games, averaging 16,127 a game in 2021-22. They jumped to 17th on the list in 2022-23, seeing an increase to 17,888 fans a night. This past season, the Magic found themselves 12th in the league in home attendance at 18,491 fans a night – just shy of the Kia Center’s NBA capacity of 18,846.

Magic fans have bought into the belief in the future of the franchise. It’s more vindication for everything Orlando has aimed for.

“I remember being in the locker room and we talked about that, like, ‘This is what we worked for. This is dope that we can hear the fans loud as hell outside,'” Franz said. “We weren’t used to that yet.”

The biggest lesson Moritz pulled from the experience, which was also his first trip to an NBA postseason, was the importance of home court in the playoffs. Mo noted his strong belief that if Orlando was hosting game seven rather than Cleveland, the outcome of the game could’ve been much different.

Cleveland fell behind by as many as 18 points before coming all the way back to defeat Orlando by 12, ending the Magic’s breakthrough season in heartbreak. Had Orlando pulled out an extra victory or two throughout the regular season – only a game separated the Cavaliers (48-34) and Magic (47-35) in the East standings, giving Cleveland the higher seed and home court – a series that went the distance would’ve been contested four times at the Kia Center rather than three.

The road team didn’t win a single game in the series.

“The home court advantage matters,” Moritz said. “The games in January matter.”

READ FURTHER: Why the Magic’s season-opening road-heavy stretch is of utmost importance

Moritz continued, saying the urgency is always there but due to the grinding nature of a long NBA season, it’s not there as frequently in the middle months of the year rather than the tense moments that the postseason brings. Certain things can only be taught through experience, Wagner said, and the heightened importance a game carries months down the line is one of them.

With training camp coming up and the taste of the experience leaving them hungry for more of it, the mindset now shifts. Now, Orlando must learn how it can best prepare itself not just for the 82-game regular season, but for the postseason that follows.

By setting a new bar last year, the Magic have a different barometer for success going forward.

“You want to have a good playoffs and that’s everything you work for,” Moritz said. “Now you have that standard and I think that does a lot to a young team like that.”

To view the whole interview between Niang, Spies and the Wagner brothers, click below.

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