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Big Change For Kids

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Whazzzzz uuuuuup, ya’ll???? We got a game later against New Jersey, but I wanted to drop you guys a line before the game. Man, there’s a lot of former Magic guys on the Nets, although all of them are hurt. Courtney, Rafer and Tony helped us get to The Finals, and I guess the only one who might play against us is “Skip to My Lou.’’ And Keyon Dooling is out too with a hip problem.

I wanted to tell you guys about something a little different today. Rather than just focusing on our last game against Cleveland or the one coming up against New Jersey, I wanted to discuss some off-the-court stuff.

After all, ya’ll have heard me say before that basketball is just a part of my life and doesn’t totally define me as a person. Trust me, I want to win more than anybody else in the NBA and I wake up and go to sleep at night thinking about getting that gold ball in June. But there are other things in my life, too.

A couple of weeks back I visited Florida Hospital to try and lift the spirits of some of the little homies there. Those guys have such good hearts and such a good outlook on life even though they are sick. They just make me feel really good inside and put it all in perspective for me. When I do something like visiting those kids at the hospital, it doesn’t make losing a basketball game seem like the end of the world.

I got to go down there and pass out a few Superman capes to the kids and it was soooooooo cool seeing their smiles. Ya’ll know I had my cape on – the one I wore in the dunk contest last year. I signed a few of the capes for the kids and we played a lot of video games. Ya’ll know competitive I am, so I was in there trying to win everything. But I’ve got to say, they did get me a few times on NBA Live 10.

This program that we’re starting called “Dwight’s Big Change for Kids,’’ is actually pretty cool. We’re building a state-of-the-art game room especially for the teenaged kids who are sick and at Florida Hospital. It’s going to have flat-screen TVs, video games, board games and educational stuff, too.

I gotta say that I’ve seen the designs of the room, and it’s going to be pretty tight. I can’t wait to see the looks on some of those kids faces when they see all of the stuff in the new teen’s room.

I know we normally touch on basketball stuff here on the blog, but I thought ya’ll might want to know what else is going on in my life. After all, there’s more to life than basketball. If you can go out and help some of these sick kids some time, you should do it because I tell you it’s as much fun for me as it is those kids I think.

Well, I’m gonna run. Ya’ll be real and I’ll see ya at the arena.

—DWIGHT

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NOW THAT’S MY MAGIC!!!!!

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Now, that’s the Magic team that we expected to look like at the start of the NBA Finals. We were patient, we were confident and we played with a swagger again. Maybe it was just being back at home or maybe it just took us a while to get used to being in The Finals, but we played like we were supposed to play.

I told ya’ll from the start that this is a seven-game series and we’re not done until the Lakers beat us four times. We still aren’t being given much of a chance to win, but maybe this win will open some eyes of the folks out there around the country. Maybe this will let them know the Magic are for real and we ain’t no pushovers.

As for my play personally, I thought I was more patient in the post and let the defense dictate what I did with the ball. When the double came I accepted it and made the right pass. When it didn’t come, I tried to be really aggressive and go right at Gasol and Bynum.

Me, Stan and Pat Ewing watched a lot of film on Monday on our day off and it really helped me see what was going on with the defense. I give the Lakers credit because they have done a good job sitting in my lap and taking away some of my moves. They are cutting me off to the middle and sending a second man when I come back baseline. So I tried to learn from that and make myself more efficient.

That’s the word – efficient – that I’m always hearing from Stan. I think I was pretty efficient in Game 3. I cut my turnovers down to one, I missed just one shot and I made most of my free throws.

And when guys like Skip, ‘Shard and MP make shots like they did, that just opens up even more things inside for me. We shot the ball like this and play this hard in Game 4 on Thursday and I think we’ll have us another win.

We really, really believe we’re still going to do this. I liked coming home for three games in a row and we felt like we could get all three of them. It’s one game at a time of course, but we haven’t lost any confidence that we can beat the Lakers.

Thank ya’ll for being so loud last night, but we need it even more hype come Thursday. We can do this – believe that!!!!

I’m out. Holler back at ya. — DWIGHT

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ME AND THE TROPHY

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Ya’ll will get to see my new commercial tonight during the game. ABC took some pictures of us with the NBA championship trophy the other day to run during the games, but if you look really close you will notice that I don’t touch it.

They had seven us take the pictures (Rafer, Turk, C-Lee, Shard, AJ, MP and me) with the trophy and some of my guys were holding it and rubbing it. But I’m not touching the trophy until we win it all and that baby re ally is mine. Then it’s on, and I’ll be kissing it and hugging it and everything.

We got the silver ball last Saturday night and it was nice, but I gotta tell you that gold one is beautiful. I want one of those so bad now.

We’re glad that game night is finally here. It’s been good to get some rest these last few days, but it actually seems like two weeks since we beat Cleveland. I think guys are focused and ready to go. We know what we have to do.

Yesterday’s practice was kinda crazy because cameras were popping and reporters were lined up around the court. I think some of our guys got to see how the Finals are different with more eyes looking at us. To me, it reminded me of the all-star games and even the Olympics from this past summer. You’re constantly getting pulled around with so much stuff to do.

I think we’ll adjust to all of this stuff pretty quick. Everybody who has been following the Magic knows that we’re a loose bunch. That’s why we’ve been so good on the road the last couple of years. That why we could go to Philly, Boston and Cleveland and win on the road in the playoffs.

We just know if we play our game by running, playing defense and rebounding we can beat anybody and win anywhere. That shouldn’t be any different tonight in L.A. We’ve won here the last two years, and we know we can do it again.

OK, ya’ll cheer us on tonight because we need the support from everywhere. That love I felt in Games 6 against Cleveland was the happiest I’ve been in a long time. We need to keep it going and get a W tonight and start these Finals off the right way.

– D-12

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LET’S DO THIS ON THURSDAY NIGHT

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Whew!!!!!! Are ya’ll as exhausted as I am after that killer game? That was a gut-check of all gut-check games for us and the Magic came through again? What are they gonna say now?

We’re so, so close to playing for that championship in the Finals, but now is no time to celebrate because really we haven’t done anything yet. We’ve won three games, but you don’t get anything for that. If you think winning last night was hard, t rying to close out the Cavs at The Q will be super hard and we know it. That’s a good team that won 66 games and they aren’t going down without a fight.


Speaking of fighting, how about those tackles that Varejao put on me a couple of times during the game??? And I’m the one who gets the technical foul!!!! I was just playing with emotion. You get in the game and you score a big bucket, you let your emotions take over. I wasn’t taunting Varejao or anything. My thing was, it was a tough play, he grabbed me around the neck and I made the shot, so hopefully they will look at it.

And on that final lob play, he rode me out of bounds, but there was nothing called. I just feel like if that had been a certain guy on the other team, the whistle would have been blowing.

This thing with the T’s is bugging me pretty bad right no w, but I can’t let it take me away from my focus on helping us get the job done. I can’t believe that I’ve had six of them called on me so far, and some of them have just been crazy. I’m not a dirty player, I don’t talk a lot of trash and I don’t curse the officials, so I can’t figure out why I keep getting them again and again.

Hopefully, the league office will look at this one and realize it was just the heat of the game. There was no taunting. I’ve already had to miss one game because of my elbows, and I made a promise to myself that I’d never have that happen again with my elbows. The thought of me having to miss another game is killing me, so I’ve got to keep my mouth shut and my elbows down.

We’re getting contributions from so many guys now – Shard, Turk, MP, C-Lee and my man Skip to My Lou. That wasn’t Rafer Alston out there tonight, that was professional street baler, Skip To My Lou!!!!

We just feel like when we’re playing like we did last night, getting help from everybody, moving the ball, running and playing defense, that we can beat anybody.

We’ve got to close this baby out now. It won’t be easy, but we feel we can get it done against anybody if we just play our game.

I’ll be ready and my guys will be ready, so let’s go do this.

Holla. — DWIGHT

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AN INCREDIBLE NIGHT FOR US

Friday, May 1st, 2009

First for foremost, I have to give a shout-out to all of the fans who joined me last night on the Twitter chat during the game. At one point during the game, we had more than 10,000 people following me. That’s just cra-zeee to me. But thanks yall for the support. It really helped me get through a frustrating situation.

Me and my sister tweeting

Me and my sister tweeting

Now, how about my teammates??? They were awesome. Those boys went out there with something to prove and they really did me proud. They dominated that game from start to finish and never gave Philly an ounce of hope. That’s how we have to play on both ends of the court if we want to keep winning in the playoffs and bring that championship back to O-town.

The Polish Hammer was dunking on their heads. J.J. was drilling those 3s. Rafer was doing his thing. And ‘Shard was a beast on the low block. Everybody pitched in and helped out and it was cool to see the whole team working together like that.

As for my suspension, everybody knows that was out of character for me. I don’t play mean or ever try to hurt anyone. That’s just not me at all. All my fans and teammates know that I’m playing to win and I’m all about having fun.

That suspension I got was fair I guess. I’m more mad at myself than anything that I let Philly’s big dudes get in my head. I have to learn from this and keep my cool in the next series.

But I’m just so happy with the way my teammates played. They were incredible.

Thank yall for tweeting with me in the game. I was hating not being out there on the court, but I actually had a fun night with my fam and my fans.

Let’s keep this winning going. We really think we can do it this year, but it’s going to take all of us staying together. Goooooo Magic!!!!

– D-12

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