Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/sports/basketball/01donovan.html?em&ex=1180843200&en=ab72da6f6b677959&ei=5087%0A]Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the N.B.A. - New York Times[/url]

After leading Florida to consecutive men’s national basketball titles, Coach Billy Donovan accepted an offer to become head coach of the [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/orlandomagic/index.html?inline=nyt-org"][COLOR=#0000ff]Orlando Magic[/COLOR][/URL].

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

kind of a surprise. but money always talks

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

Good luck to him. Actually I hope he fails miserably since the Magic are in the same division as the Wizards. College coaches have had a hard time adapting to the NBA game (Pitino). Its hard dealing w/ so many egos.

But Donovan does have some NBA experience. I think he was an assistant somewhere, but I can't remember. We'll see how he does.


At lease he's getting paid!

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

I am a big Providence College fan(my dad went there). We saw Billy D play in the final four in 1987. It is hard to beleive how far he has come! Rick Pitino opened a lot of doors for him

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

i think he was an assistant with pitino and the new yourk knicks

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

It appears that Donovan is having a change of heart

[url=http://www.abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=3241607]ABC News: Magic: Donovan Is 'Conflicted' Over Deal[/url]

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

Is that wild or what?

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

Wow, that's a tough decision. He has done all that could be done at the college level and the Magic are offering a lot of money. I wonder what has transpired since he accepted the Magic job. Florida is a well endowed I imagne but I can't see them matching that kind of money. It would set a huge precedence if they did.

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

He realized that he was coaching the Magic...and that 2 of this starters wouldn't be Shaq and Penny.

If he successfully gets out of this deal, it's almost a given that he never coaches in the NBA. Who's going to take a chance on a wishy-washy college coach, and since Florida's peaked, he's got nowhere to go but down until he completely rebuilds the program.

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

[QUOTE=BDBohnzie;315655]He realized that he was coaching the Magic...and that 2 of this starters wouldn't be Shaq and Penny.

If he successfully gets out of this deal, it's almost a given that he never coaches in the NBA. Who's going to take a chance on a wishy-washy college coach, and since Florida's peaked, he's got nowhere to go but down until he completely rebuilds the program.[/QUOTE]

Well if he gets out apparently part of the agreement is that he's not allowed to coach in the NBA for the next 5 years. From what I understand, and this is not necessarily to blame the Magic, Orlando should have just given him a little more time to think about it but they essentially gave him a Friday ultimatum and he felt pressured into making a decision.

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

come on smooty, Donovan is a grown man. he knew what signing the contract meant. and can they hold him to the 5 year thing, legally? i think they would be hard pressed to have that hold up in court

Re: Florida’s Donovan Is Leaving for the NBA
 

Like I said, I'm not blaming the Magic. I'm just saying that's sort of what happened. My guess is that something will be written in that says if he does go somewhere else (in the NBA) the Magic will be compensated. Sort of like what happens when NFL coaches leave their teams early (such as Vermeil)