The Orlando Magic: Where Dreams Come True

I would really like to thank the Orlando Magic for making all of my basketball dreams of what was possible in 1999 come true. The Spurs were fresh off of a championship, so now drunk off of glory and cough syrup, I was truly able to appreciate the game for what it was.

However, 1999 was the start of something incredible. The sophomore seasons of Vince Carter and Jason Williams completely redefined what was possible on a basketball court. Rifled 60-ft passes for alley-oops? Sure. In-game windmill dunks in traffic? Fine. Buzzer beating threes? By the shitload.

This train of mixtape wackiness and fanciful flavor gallivanted across the nation on a nightly basis. Some people will only remember the beginning of the Kobe-Shaq dynasty, and the continuation of the Spurs and therefore Western Conference hegemony. Not I. 1999-2000 will always mean Houston rappers, a West Virginian in Sacramento, and a Floridian in Canada to me.

Hundreds of thousands of NBA Live 99 teams had to have been manufactured to include these two players. Ten years later, the dream has been fulfilled. Ten years later. After ten years in athletics, it's going to be different. These two players are in fact shells of what they once were. Empty craters of potential that blew up in our faces. Settling for jump shots and textbook chestpasses weren't part of this fucking dream. So I leave you with videos remembering the good times. Just as a reminder that at the turn of the century, nobody did it iller than these two.





Nobody had cell phones, the Internet was slow as hell, but the roundball was dope.