EP. 536 – Summer of the Magic – Orlando Magic Podcast

EP. 536 – Summer of the Magic – Orlando Magic Podcast

This is the Sixth Man Show, an Orlando Magic podcast with your hosts Kevin Tucker and Jonathan Osborne covering all things Magic Basketball by fans for fans. Go Magic. What’s going on Orlando Magic fans? You guys are back with the six-man show. Today is July 17th, 2025. Jonathan Osborne here and as always joined by my co-host Kevin Tucker. Kevin, what’s going on? Hey, not a whole lot, man. Uh I know you’re uh you have a lot going on. You got a big couple days coming up. I know. Uh you want you want to want to share with the viewers your little annual getaway? Yeah, it’s the uh the annual boys golf trip. Last year uh we were in Orlando for 8 days. Last year we hit Orange County National Dubs Dread and a little Winter Park Pines action. So if you’re, you know, local to Central Florida, if you know you’re local to Orlando, you might be familiar with some of those tracks. This year, uh, the trip has doubled. We’re up to 16 and we’re headed to St. Augustine. So we’re going to be playing some of the the World Golf Village courses that are up there. The World Golf Hall of Fame is in St. Augustine. I didn’t know that until, you know, the last four or five months after we had really already planned the trip and it’s uh RDER Cup style, you know, teams and match play, all that. So, yeah, I’m I’m really looking forward to that. It’ll be a nice little getaway kind of, you know, recharge and then you and I are going to get through like the dog days of the off season here after that. Well, I was just going to say I might I’m also we’re recording this while the Magic are playing their their fourth preseason or not preseason, summer league game. So, I may have misheard, but I want to just in case I want to maybe correct something that this it’s an eight person trip, not a eight day trip last year and it’s a 16 person trip this year. Is that what you’re saying? Cuz I think I missed said I might have missed. Yeah, it was eight guys last year, 16 guys this year. I know. I think you said 8day trip last year. We’re doubling it to 16 this year. And I was like, wow. on a 16-day golf golf trip. No, I would love that. That would be fun. Yeah, 16 days. I would come home and all my stuff would be on the front porch and I’d have to record the pod from like a, you know, Super Eight motel or something. Yeah. Again, maybe I misheard cuz I’m watching this thrilling matchup between the Orlando Magic and the Brooklyn Nets over here. But wow, 16 guys and I didn’t get didn’t get an invite. That’s interesting. That’s uh You don’t golf? I’ll keep that. I’m just kidding. No, I know. I know. You don’t golf? I’ve tried to get you and Luke to golf for a couple years now and you’ve been a little bit more receptive, but you know Sure. Yeah. If you would have invited me, you pick up the sticks and if you would have invited me, I would have said no. So that’s Yeah. Well, then there we go. I’m just kidding. Which I which I knew. So I know. But yeah, a little bit of magic news. Not really much news, just like a couple of, you know, things that have happened. Jordan Brand put out a photo a couple of days ago like featuring a ton of their athletes and Paulo Bankerro posted to his Instagram a little bit earlier today on Wednesday as we’re recording this like this little snippet of like the hard knock life like the instrumental you know of him like running back you know holding up the L to his forehead from what I’ve read and heard it sounds like it’s going to be kind of like a musical this this ad which Kev of myself, you know, uh, unapologetically fans of of musicals. So, that’s right. Um, I think it’s going to be pretty cool. I think that releases the 19th, so on Saturday. So, looking forward to seeing that. Um, outside of that, Jeff Welman did an interview with Sirius XM the other day where he was quoted talking about, you know, the Magic’s goals for this season, and it’s not just to win the East, like it’s to win the NBA. So obviously everybody sees the East as being wide open, but you can’t just approach your roster construction as like, hey, we need to win our conference. You also have to be prepared for the teams that are on the other side of the bracket. So I I even though I feel like we all kind of knew knew that sometimes you do have to say that part out loud, but yeah, knowing that they’re not only trying to win the conference, but they’re trying to win everything. and the fact that, you know, we talked about this with Paulo that we’re not hiding from that by any means, like we want to go forward with the the idea like to win everything. So, that was pretty cool to hear. Well, and it’s also always nice to hear like the guy who’s at the head of the basketball snake, if you will, for the Orlando Magic, who’s known to be a little more quiet, a little more um reserved, just come out and say something bold like that, like, “Hey, that’s not that’s not we’re about, you know, that’s that’s great.” And obviously, that’s a step uh in the right direction compared to where where we’ve been, but winning the whole thing is the goal. And so, I think that’s really cool. I wanted to go back super fast, Jonathan, to the Jordan thing. Um, also just feel like we got to mention, you know, there’s there’s two sides of this. It wasn’t just Paulo. Jet was also a part of the the Jordan thing. And so, you know, don’t want to be accused of playing favorites with the Magic roster by only mentioning Paulo. Jet Howard was also there. That’s it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, as you mentioned, we’re recording this in the middle of the Magic Nets summer league game. The Magic did lose their summer league game on Tuesday to fall to 0 and3 in summer league. They lost 75 to 92 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Remember when it was like, you know, Orlando Magic Blue, Orlando Magic White? It felt like there was like an Oklahoma City blue, Oklahoma City white, like back in like the older summer league days. But um the reason that not this was notable and it also wasn’t wasn’t really like a notable game because there was no Tristan D Silva, no Jace Richardson, no No Appenda. So I had kind of just assumed that all three of those dudes were going to be shut down for the rest of summer league. It seems like Tristan Dilva and Jace both have as they are not playing in tonight’s game against the Nets, but no appenda is. And so far through 10 minutes, nine points, two rebounds, one assist, four of six from the floor, one of two from behind the arc. So, he’s now, you know, hit a couple of I think that was his second three that he’s hit. And and it was a be beautiful step back three, by the way. It was and they are down uh 12 right now with uh just over three minutes to go in in the the first half. So, um, yeah, we’re we’re really pretty quickly approaching the part of summer league where like I know we’ve talked about it, but like mostly we just want to see what you’re getting out of Tristan, Noah, and Jace. I’m assuming that Noah will probably be like totally shut down after this fourth. And at the rate that they’re going, they probably will only have one other, you know, summer league game. Oh, yeah. that was already announced Friday 400 p.m. uh the Orlando Magic will play the I think it’s the Dallas Mavericks is their final game on Friday. So 400 p.m. Eastern I should say. So yeah, that was announced. The consolation like the consolation stage there’s not even a bracket. It’s just like hey you get one more game and then we’re putting you out of your misery. Well that yeah that’s what happens when you start 0 and three. So they they just take those teams and they just go here you go one more game just to cross it off the list so you get five and that’s it. But yeah, um yeah, it’s it’s been it’s funny, you know, I feel like every summer, maybe it’s just me, but like I look at, you know, the key guys that the Magic are bringing and I’m like, you know what, this team’s got a chance. You know, Tristan D Silva, you know, Jace Richardson, Noah Penda, this team’s got a chance, you know, or even, you know, a couple seasons ago, like think about Anthony Black and Jet Howard and I don’t remember there was a third. Who else do we bring to that one? I don’t know. But either way, feels like the last few years I’m like, “Yeah, this team this team could make a run at the the chip and then uh yeah, next thing you know, you know, 72 hours into it, you’re 0 and three and you’re like, well, let’s pack it up and try again next year.” So, yeah, a little strange, but it is what it is. It’s like the Giants season. Like every year I spend the entire, you know, six, seven months of the offseason like getting excited for Giants football and then like you’re 0 and three and you’re like, “Okay, my season’s over already.” like everything that I got excited for. It’s like at least when you’re like a 500 team, you have like, okay, we won this week, we lost this week, like okay, like you know, there’s five games to play and we’re three games out of the playoffs. Like maybe there’s still a chance. But when you know that the team is just terrible three, four games in and there’s no point in watching. Kind of always makes that pretty miserable. But yeah, yeah, it’s just weird that I cannot remember the last time that the Magic had like a legitimately good summer league team, right? And yeah, thinking back like Jay Huff last year is like one of the rare kind of non roster bright spot guys that we’ve had on the summer league rosters. Like I I I’m sure there is someone, but I I can’t nobody else really comes to mind of guys that we’ve had on the summer league team and they’ve been like, “Oh, wow. This guy’s actually pretty good.” Mhm. Yeah. Especially good enough to earn like an NBA spot, you know, a legitimate NBA spot, which Jay Huff has done. No. Um, and then the one guy that we did have, he went to another team, you know, so we didn’t even keep that guy. Yep. Yeah. Tail as old as time. But, uh, yeah, I’m I’m I for one, I’m glad that summer league is come and now about to go on Friday and that’ll be that. So, what are your overall thoughts? Like, what you wanted to see out of each one of these guys? Like, let’s start with Tristan. Like, what did you expect going into summer league? And did he meet exceed those expectations? How do you feel? Yeah, I mean, mostly met them, you know. I I still feel like, and again, this is just me just watching him. I’ve always felt like Tristan could have a little more um point forward type edge to his game that, you know, you go into something like summer league where he’s at least on paper the best player on the roster, at the very least the most experienced player on the roster NBA wise. And I’m like, man, maybe there’s some opportunities for him to, you know, bring the ball up and initiate some. And, you know, um, and so, you know, that’s the one thing I was really kind of looking for from him. And that, you know, again, that’s just wishful thinking, I think, on my part to think that was even possible. Uh, not not that he’s not capable of it, but that that was even going to be part of an offense that we saw. So, but outside of that, you know, he he played pretty well. Had some turnovers that you don’t love to see, but outside of that, shot the ball well. Uh Jace, we talked about him a little bit in the last episode. I’ve been impressed about how how he plays as far as his size goes. Um yes, he’s short, but isn’t necessarily he doesn’t let that spill over into the rest of his game, right? He’s very physical on both ends of the basketball floor, which we’ve we talked about on the last episode. And then Noah. Yeah, Noah’s uh summer league is still going. I’m actually, you know, like we said, watching him over here right now. But uh yeah, another super physical guy. I think he’s got a lot of tools. his step back three tonight, you know, inspired a lot of a lot of hope, you know, because it’s like, man, it was beautiful. But, um, but yeah, I I think all in all about what I expected. Um, did anything surprise you so far in summer league from what we saw? No, I I think um and which you kind of saw in the tape for Jace coming out of Michigan State like the ability to get to the rim and like finish through contact, but it’s like there there’s always like a different level of physicality. Like Jace on the floor in summer league like looked small. At Michigan State, he looked on the smaller size, but still looked like, you know, he’s a 6-1 guard. You know, decent size for a college player. So I was like, “Okay, well, you know, he was able to finish amongst bigs, but the size and the athleticism, obviously, it’s going to be at a different level in the summer league, and obviously it’ll be at an even different level, you know, going into, you know, the the regular season. But his ability to get to the free throw line, finish through contact, that kind of stuff has been really encouraging. And so far outside of like um you know Sheed from the the Raptors like those first couple of games outside of Jamal Shed again or Sheided Shed I forget how to pronounce the young man’s name from Toronto but he like was all over the left hand. Other guys weren’t. Gave Jace kind of a little bit more space to operate. I think he’s going to have to improve there. Like looking at the numbers, Tristan Dilva in two games, 18 and a half points, 50% from the floor, 38% from behind the ark, six rebounds, three assists, four and a half turnovers. You don’t want to see that, but we’re not going to see him with the ball in his hands as much as he, you know, had in summer league. I did want to see a little bit more of that, right? Like I I don’t think Tristan Dilva is, you know, ever going to be the same level of player that Aaron Gordon was, even, you know, when Aaron Gordon was here in Orlando. But in Aaron Gordon’s second summer league, we were like, “Wow.” Like the jump shooting, the handle had taken a pretty big step forward. And not that he could do that all the time, but like what was it like 41 points against the Brooklyn Nets? Like we saw games like that from AG from time to time. Um, I was hoping that we would be able to see a little bit more of that from Tristan, him take a like not a bigger leap in terms of the regular season, but seeing him matched up with the quality of talent in summer league, seeing him be able to put it on the floor a little bit more and and, you know, be able to just do more of what he wanted in in those situations. But, you know, I’m not at all coming away from that like discouraged from what we saw, you know, from him. And then in terms of Jace here, I just had his numbers up in front of me. Where did those go? Here we go. 16 and a half points per game, 55.6% from the floor, 50% from behind the arc, one and a half rebounds, 2 and a half assists per game. So, we talked about some of the the bright spots with him. And then Noah through two games. Obviously, we have this third game, 8.5 points. uh 44% from the floor, not great, 16% from behind the arc, but eight and a half rebounds, three assists per game, and two and a half steals. So just about three stocks per game out of Noah Penda. And right now in this one, a little bit of an update. He’s up to 11 points, five rebounds, an assist, a block. So like what we thought like can do a little bit of everything. That’s exactly what we’re seeing from Noah. and the defense obviously has been the the biggest thing, but just seems to have like good feel for the game, uses his body pretty well, but the offense is is going to be a work in progress. So overall, like Tristan pretty much met expectations. I would say Jason Noah both kind of exceeded my expectations a little bit and I wouldn’t be surprised for those guys to, you know, maybe earn some rotation minutes at some point this year. You know, maybe even outside of injury. like one night this guy just doesn’t have it going. All right, Jace, you’re in and and kind of give those guys a little bit of a leash and see see what happens. Yeah. And I think even same could be said with Noah, like whether it’s, you know, a guy like Ji or something doesn’t have it or I I think Noah’s first um opportunities could come from foul trouble. You know, I I think you know, couple big bigger bodies. you know, I wouldn’t I don’t know if I’d necessarily call him a big body, but you know, he’s he’s built, but he’s not, you know, super tall, obviously. But regardless what I’m saying, you know, Wendell at Ji gets in foul trouble. Um, you know, even, you know, add in Paulo or something like that. I don’t know. I think that’s a a route that Noah could see his first, you know, playing time this season. And then, um, then, yeah, we’ll see what he can do with it. Yeah, I think so. Especially like I think you might have mentioned but as Mo is like working back from the injury, you know, he might not be playing back to backs, might not be playing, you know, 25 minutes a game like right away. So, um I could definitely see that. Yeah. Hey, Jonathan. Yes. Do you do you like food? Of course. Do you like good food? Of course. Well, you’re in luck because Jam Hot Chicken is bringing Jam’s Cultured Hot Chicken to the heart of Winter Park and they make some of the best food in Central Florida and they sponsor the show. And so, we’re big fans of them, not just because they sponsor the show, but because they are dieh hard Orlando Magic fans who love this team, love this fan community. And you can find them at 400 West New England Avenue, Sweet 13 in Hannibal Square. You can also follow them on social media, Jamhotchick. follow them on Instagram first because then you get to see all the pictures of the really really good food whether it’s you know the box which has a bunch of stuff just thrown in there or the sando or if you like their home their housemade pickles or the housemade ranch or everything’s good there. You’re going to love it all. Uh and you can also go to their website jamhotchickenickfl.com to check out the menu so you can see all the different things that they have available. Uh they’re really really good. I promise you, we can’t tell you the number of people that listen to the show or watch the show. We’ve sent to Jam Hot Chicken and they’ve come back saying, “Oh yeah, you’re right. It’s actually really good.” And so definitely check them out on social media and on their website and visit them in person in Winter Park. And when you do, just let them know the Sixman Show sent you. This episode is also brought to you by 50 on Your Head, Maria, Gear 95 Shred, Jamil Miller, and Ellis. These are some of our Hall of Fame and elite tier patrons. These folks went to patreon.com/the6man show and joined either at our hall of fame or elite tier level. We try to shout out brand new patrons whenever we have them. And as you heard, we shout out some of those uh tier of patrons each and every episode as well. Can’t do anything that we do without the support of our patrons financially supporting the show allowing us to do everything that we do. So, if you’re a fan of the show, whether you’ve been listening for two weeks or two years, you want to join in and help us keep moving this thing forward, continue this movement, trying to grow this magic fan base, you can head on over to patreon.com/the6man show, join whatever tier makes the most sense for you. We have a ton of benefits like ask like access to our Discord community. also uh monthly Zoom calls for some of our tiers as well where we just hang out with Magic fans, give them a little bit of a behind thescenes look at what we’re doing here and working on at the show, but also just talk Magic Basketball. So again, you want to help support the show, head on over to patreon.com/d6manshow. And now let’s get back to the episode. Okay. Um, one thing that we like to do once a year, usually around this time, you know, as the off season is starting to slow down a little bit, you know, you have like this obviously the finals ends and then you go right into the draft and, you know, free agency and then right into summer league and it’s almost like this valley that you have like in the middle of the summer before you start to ramp up for the next season. And we know that as each year goes by, you know, luckily we’re very fortunate that the listener base and the viewer base like those things continue to grow. So we know that inevitably we have people that are have just found us in the last few weeks in a lot of cases or you know at at the bare minimum like since the last time you know we did an episode like this where we go through and just you know talk a little bit about ourselves. not too much, but then mostly talk about like the origins of the show, kind of what our goal is with the show and why it is that we do the things that we do and why we’re passionate about the things that we’re passionate about and and talk more about the community. So, um, this second half of the episode is going to be more about that, just kind of getting to know us, but also like just getting to know, you know, what it is exactly that we do here. So, um, Kev, if you don’t mind, just tell us a little bit about yourself for those of you or those of us that that don’t know much about you. Well, yeah. I mean, this is always fun because, you know, we’ve done this every year. I mean, at least since I’ve been around, which we’ll talk about how long that’s been in a little bit, but I think this is the first one that I I’ve done with you, though. That’s the thing. You know, in the past it was Luke um and now it’s me. And so, uh, we get to do this together. But what I was going to say was what I enjoy about these is even if you’ve been listening to the show for a long time, we always find ways to learn something new about, you know, each other and in this process. And so, yeah, maybe if you’ve been around for a long time, you you never know, you might learn something new about Jonathan that that you didn’t know before. But anyway, yeah. So, basically, um, we’ll kind of go through who we are as Magic fans and and what kind of led us to this and led us to the show and all that kind of stuff. Um uh basically long story short, back when I was a young lad, when I was 7 years old, my family packed up and moved to uh central Florida to CMI to be more specific. So I live where did you guys move from? We moved from Virginia. So you moved from Virginia. Okay. Virginia down to CMI when I was 7 years old. That was 1999. Many years ago now. And uh yeah uh moved there, loved it. And uh my dad was a huge basketball fan. And so obviously moving to an NBA city for the first time was pretty cool. And so very quickly within just a few months of uh moving there once the we moved there in May. So once the next season started in the fall, we went to my first game and I was totally totally hooked with this whole NBA thing and these superstars and you know just the buzz of going and Michael Doliaak. Yep. That was a big deal. just the buzz of like going to a big a big room with 17,000 other people and cheering on this basketball team and I don’t know it was really really cool and I was absolutely hooked and so ever since then you know I was seven so like I like the Magic but you know how much can you really really you know like something at seven you can like it but I don’t think you can be really obsessed for a while and so it wasn’t until the Magic drafted Dwight Howard in 2004 you know 5 years later so I would have been like you know 12 13ish you know which is a good age to start, you know, becoming obsessed with things, you know, find your niche in life and or maybe just your addictions, you know, I don’t know, like like basketball’s become for me. But, uh, but yeah, so that’s when I like truly just fell in love with the team and with the NBA. And so, yeah, just kind of uh made the Orlando Magic my my hobby. And so, yeah, ever since then, you know, what is that? 21 years. That’s stupid, man. That’s crazy. 21 years of watching this team pretty religiously. Um, and yeah, I’ve been been along for the ride ever since, you know, all of Dwight’s career and the ups and downs of that to um the valley that was, you know, the Dwight Mayor and beyond. And then now we’re in this beautiful era of Magic Basketball. Uh, well, it’s been beautiful so far. Hopefully, it’s even more beautiful in the years to come. Yeah, that’s the short of it. That’s kind of my uh what led me here to being a Magic fan and one that just for some odd reason just loves to watch every game and talk about it afterwards. So, yeah. So, I have a question for you, please. Um, something that I I I guess don’t know about the Kevin Tucker timeline. So, you were here. What year was that again? 99. 99. Okay. So, then you moved back to Virginia at some point. I did. Yes. That that’s a good point. I moved back to Virginia after my freshman year of high school. So, for the last three years of high school, I was up in Virginia. Yeah. which so which would have been what years? Yeah, that coincided with the finals run unfortunately. So we moved there in 2007. So um yeah, my last Okay. Yeah. How about this? This is good trivia. My last Magic game living in Central Florida was game three in 2007 against the Detroit Pistons when we got swept, which was a very fun game to be at. My first playoff game ever. We did get swept. So yeah, that was in April. We moved back in May and then yeah, so I was up actually up there for the finals run and then obviously 2010 as well that team. But yeah, I I came down for I want to say three or four games that season, the 0809 season. Um, as much as a 16-year-old could, I tried to get down here. Um, but yeah, that’s a good point. So, what games were you in Orlando for an 09 playoff-wise? Only one. Playoff wise, I only came down for game six against the Celtics in the second round. Just like, you know, which was one of the biggest games of the of the It was awesome. It was awesome. It was so much fun. Uh it’s one of my favorite memories ever. Um but yeah, I wasn’t able to again I was 16, so like I couldn’t really afford to do a lot. How did that work out? Like who were you traveling with? Like who were you staying with at the time? Yeah, it was actually it the timing was amazing. It was actually a family trip. So, my mom and my brother and myself all came down. We flew down just for a family trip to visit, you know, our friends. We had been gone for exactly a year cuz we moved May the year before. And so, um wait, no, that’s not true. We moved May 2 years before. That’s what it was. Cuz we moved in ‘ 07. The finals were in ’09. It was 2 years before um we moved and then Yeah. So, I just happened to be down here at the perfect time for that. But then, yeah, I wasn’t able to come back. But yeah. Oh, yeah. as far as staying with people. I mean, we still have a bunch of great friends here. And I always call some of them my family. They’re they’re so much friends that are like family. And so, uh, yeah, that was that. And then, uh, then once I became an adult, you know, you make your own money, you make your own rules, and you you go down to Florida whenever you feel like it, and your bank account lets you. So, uh, yeah, now I go down there a lot. So, anyway, that’s sure does. Yeah. Well, so yeah. Um, me, I was a a big baseball and football kid growing up. Like, baseball was actually my first love. I don’t know that I’ve even told Kevin that, but yeah, I was a right fielder for the Knights of Columbus Oakland A’s. I don’t like to brag. Yep. Yep. That and third base, and I was actually pretty good. And then um my best friend Will Robles who was the original co-host of this here podcast um he was a big basketball fan. I would go over to his house and we would play you know NBA Live and all that kind of stuff on Gamecube. And I remember he had I I think it might have been a later on I know he had a Carlos Royal poster. I don’t know if it was the same time as I’m remembering. I don’t think it is as as a matter of fact, but I remember we’re playing NBA Live and we’re playing as the Magic. I remember this guy number one was just like filthy and was so much fun to use in the game and I was like, “Who is this guy?” And he’s like, “Oh, that’s Tracy McGrady.” Like, “That’s the Magic’s best player.” And then, so yeah, I I fell in love with Tracy McGrady first, but that was my introduction into basketball. And then, you know, by way of Tracy McGrady and, you know, my best friend at the time being a Magic fan, I fell in love with the Magic. And then um roughly like a year later, he was traded away to the Houston Rockets. Well, he asked to be traded and happened to be traded away to the Houston Rockets. And um I remember crying that day because I had been asking for a Tracy McGrady uh jersey for my birthday and hadn’t gotten it yet and knew that now that he had been traded that before long those jerseys were not going to be available. This is before the days of like buying things online and uh you know sure there was eBay but I probably didn’t even know what that was. So I begged my mom who was living in Ohio at the time. I was staying with my mom over summer break and begged my mom to take me to the mall so that we could find a Tracy McGrady jersey. my mom’s friend at the time. Um, we were walking through the mall and saw this kid sitting at a kiosk wearing a Tracy McGrady Orlando Magic jersey and was going to pay this kid for the jersey off his back before the kid was like, “No, like you can just go to that store right there.” I think it was like a champs and uh and bought that. And then um that same summer, the Magic Draft Dwight Howard and then, you know, was kind of like a casual observer just like any, you know, 12, 13 year old is at the time. And growing up, you know, uh my dad didn’t, you know, have a ton of money, so just was never able to to afford to bring me to a Magic game. So I I didn’t get to go to a Magic game until I was already 19 years old, I believe. I would have been in in 2012, no, it would have been 2013. So yeah, I still would have been still would have been 19 years old. But yeah, that finals run um in ’09 is really um what hooked me in in in basketball. is just has really never let me go there. And yeah, been rocking with the team ever since like Kevin said because uh you know, you have that great season and then you make the finals and then all of a sudden Otis Smith is like, “Actually, we need to trade away uh you know, Dwight Howard, not Dwight, not Dwight Howard, Hido Turkaloo, and then all of a sudden it’s like, oh well, you know, Dwight, you know, wants to leave because this team didn’t work out. Well, okay, let’s flip Rashard Lewis for, you know, Gilbert Arenas.” And that was really the beginning of the end. and then trading Brandon Bass for Glenn Davis and so on and so forth. And then yeah, it’s just really been a a pretty miserable experience that next, you know, eight or nine years until Fron Ver and Jaylen Suggs and then Paliban Carro and the rest of these guys kind of entered our life. But yeah, that’s kind of our our background of Orlando Magic fandom as as we like to call it. when we have our patron Zoom calls, whenever we have new people that join for the first time, we always ask for their magic fandom like origin story. So, yeah, those are our origin stories. Yeah. Long, by the way, that’s a the definition of long story short, right? Cuz you think about a lot of years to condense into that, but yeah, that’s that’s the short of it. And 16 years. Yeah. like die hard in 16 years, but you know, almost I mean, yeah, we’re talking 20 years now. Yep. Long time, which is weird. I don’t feel that old, but here I am. Is what it is. Uh, you always talk about this, but when you start to get to the point of your life where you like remember kids being high school prospects and then watching them play in college and then now you’ve watched their entire NBA careers come to an end, right? Okay, this is a little bit different. Well, not only that, but now we’re watching their their sons, right, in the same cycle, right? Like, think about Jir. I remember Jir being drafted and watching his entire Orlando Magic career and now Jir Nelson Jr. is, you know, in the ranks summer league, right? Which is just like the weirdest thing ever. That’s just I hate I hate it so much. It’s awful. But anyway, uh yeah, right. Oh, yeah. Great example. Great example. Um what was I going to say? Oh, yeah. So LeBron James, right? Probably the best example. Yeah, just not I was thinking more magically, but yes, that that too. I was going to say Oh, okay. I was going to say so I’m like I said moved in 99 and I I’ll just take it from when I became obsessed like 2004. So my obsessed fandom is 21 years old. Like my obsessed fandom can go get a drink. Like that that just makes me sick. That makes me sick. I’m too I’m not I don’t I don’t like being old, but it is what it is. So, and Kevin has literally watched every single game of the past 21 seasons of Orlando Magic Basketball. The ones that were televised, cuz not all of them were back in the day. So, the ones that weren’t televised, I didn’t watch those. But yeah, that’s my Yeah, that’s my sad claim to fame, unfortunately. But, uh, not not live, by the way. I just want to always clarify. Doesn’t mean I watch every game live because that would be you gota I have some version of a life outside of this team, but uh, not much. Just kidding. But yeah, it’s crazy. crazy. There was something else that I wanted to ask you. I guess now we’ll talk kind of about like origin stories of the pod and um I have a question for you in in the middle of that as as we get to the the Kevin chapter. So yeah, 2019. So I grew up near Tampa in Newport Richie, which you don’t know where it is, so that’s why I say Tampa, of course. So about 35 minutes north of Tampa if you take the the Veterans Expressway there. Um, but growing up like other than Will, we like we were the only two Magic fans in our entire high school. Like I remember that would have been my sophomore year of high school, you know, with the the Magic like going through the playoffs and like going through the, you know, the Eastern Conference Finals and like the Eastern Conference Finals being like the last few weeks of school that year and like arguing like tooth and nail with kids at the lunch table about, you know, the Magic were going to be able to beat LeBron and the Cavs and and etc. But like again, myself and Will, only two Magic fans at our high school. So growing up, definitely not having other, you know, Magic fans in the area to talk about the team with and and connect to. And especially once Dwight left in the the team’s popularity went down. Like where I grew up, you can walk into Walmart right now and buy an Orlando City jersey. You will never find anything Orlando Magic in that area. you can find Rays, Bucks, Lightning, obviously being in Tampa, but even Orlando City, but you’ll never see anything Orlando Magic there. So, um, in tw the 2018 2019 season, um, about a week after Valentine’s Day, I remember going to Valentine’s Day dinner with my wife at Taso Italiano in Newport Richie and putting my phone up against like the salt and pepper shakers with the game on so that we could watch it. And this was when Kev, you remember the Hornets owned the Magic. Like, we had lost like 12 out of the last 13 times. And then what I affectionately like to refer to as the Valentine’s Day massacre of 2019 because we absolutely throttled the Hornets. Uh I think it was later that week or like later that weekend, we’re driving home from Inessous back to Newport Richie and I’m listening to um Locked on Magic with Philip Rossman Reich. Shout out our guy the podfather. And the episode ends and I turn to Carmen, my wife, and I say, “You know, I wish I had another magic podcast to listen to because this is like, it sounds silly, but that week was the start of like the most exciting point in like Orlando Magic history in like six, seven years to that point. And I just wanted to get all the magic content that I could find.” And she goes, “Well, why don’t you start a podcast?” So, long story short, I reach out to Will and I’m like, “Dude, if you don’t do this with me, it’s never going to happen.” We started doing it. Obviously, the Magic go on that crazy run 22-9, you know, to finish out the the season, win game one against the Raptors, you know, in in game one uh in the first round of of that series and then fall in five games. And then as we get into the next season, like Will lets me know basically like, “Hey, like I love that you love this. I’m not really so much into And I said, “That’s totally fine.” But now I’m absolutely addicted. Fast forward a couple of months, I realized I really can’t do this by myself. Again, shout out to Philip Rossman Reich. I have no idea how he does it solo every day. Give him all the respect in the world for it cuz it is so hard to do that. and by you know happen stance a little you know serendipitously run into one Luke Sylvia who joins the show and then like two weeks into the show with him co hits shuts down the NBA. Luke gets through that period with me and then about a year later we get a we get a a DM out of nowhere from one Kevin Tucker just saying hey like I like what you guys are doing would love to help you guys out in any capacity that you know I can. And then uh for the next few years, Kevin Tucker was known as producer Kevin on uh on the show here. And then um last summer, Luke left the show to, you know, follow some other, you know, opportunities and some other passions. And now Kevin Tucker is the full-time, you know, co-host of the show. Still producer Kevin, for those uh any of you wondering, he still takes care of a lot of that stuff for us. Um but yeah, and now that brings us to present day today. Yeah. And just like thinking of the different branches of the six-man show, like it started, you know, before me obviously started with, you know, you and Will and then you and Luke doing I think I think you were only doing audio to start, right? And then you kind of branched into some YouTube and and YouTube was, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there. And then 2021, you know, we started putting every episode or maybe it’s a little before sometime around there, like early 21, maybe late 20, I don’t remember. every episode started hitting YouTube and then uh then we yeah decided to go that was we were weekly by the way once a week every Monday one show one I don’t I don’t even remember what that was like um yeah must have been nice and then okay and then then we added uh another show which if you’re if you are a real one if you’re an OG that’s been around you will remember a great show that we did on here called Shoot the Shot you know little play on words I’ll let you figure it out. Mhm. Um, but the idea was, you know, our Monday show was the Six Man Show. Thursday was shoot the shot and that’s when we talked about everything not Orlando Magic. So, we did kind of more variety sports stuff, you know, stuff across the league, but also NFL, college sports, you know, whatever. And plus like other things like just pop culture, who knows? And I think we did 19 episodes, maybe. I was going to say it lasted like three or four months. Yeah, that’s about it. Uh because it yeah people just come to find out people don’t want to hear us talk about anything other than the Orlando Magic which I don’t blame them by the way. And to be fair we didn’t like talking about anything other than the Magic. Correct. I I don’t hide the fact that I’m not like a passionate NBA fan. Although I am a a big fan of the NBA. It pales in comparison to my passion, you know, about the Orlando Magic. And plus, it’s hard to like be a quote unquote expert about all of those things, you know, which again is why national media is not good because it’s impossible to be an expert on all 30 teams and then add in the NFL and college sports or whatever. So anyway, we did that and then once Shoot the Shot, you know, ran its course, we decided, you know what, let’s just do the Orlando Magic twice a week. So, we went to twice a week and then fast forward to I mean when did we start the when did we start with the six fan? Well, I guess let’s go back back up before that. At some point in the way we added like the watch party element, you know, the live events stuff. Tell us about the very first the very first watch party. Yeah, I mean I started the watch parties pretty early on like in the first month and a half of the podcast like by going through Reddit. So, we used to meet at the um Buffalo Wild Wings on Tampa Road in Oldsmar, Florida. The first ever watch party that we had, I believe it was when the Magic played the Heat late in the year, like it was important for playoff standings and they were retiring Chris Bosch’s jersey. So, we actually had like 15 or 16 people come out for that. And then I think we had a couple others and the last one that we had was either Yeah, I think it it was game five uh you know of the first round and we had like five people show up to that one because everybody knew that the series was chocked at that point and then we had another watch party uh for the draft that year uh where the Magic drafted Chuma Okke, right? That’s how we say it now. Yeah. At the time they drafted Okiki but Yeah. Yeah. Chuma OKK. Um, and we had like I don’t know nine or ten people at that one. But yeah, like it was always it’s I’ve just always been passionate about like, hey, how can I connect with other Magic fans? Like that was the whole reason that I started the pod and the idea of like being able to be in person with other Magic fans in my area watching this game and kind of like sharing this passion that you know in in most areas of your life is pretty obscure because it’s not you know if you’re an NFL fan of any team I don’t care what city you’re in you can find other people that are are fans of the team that you like for whatever reason up to this point because things are about to change, right? Um it’s it’s scarce to to find other other Magic fans, especially Magic fans who actually are passionate and as passionate as you are and really know what they’re talking about and can carry a conversation, right? Like if I meet somebody and they’re like, “Oh yeah, you know, what’s Aaron a followup to?” I’m like, “Okay, we can’t really this isn’t really going to continue.” So yeah, that’s been a an early part and obviously that’s been a cool thing. So Kevin joined right before the um draft lottery watch party that we had in 2021 where we won the I guess ended up with at the time is the way that we felt about it the fifth and the eighth pick and then to think what what’s crazy is that like just a year after that was the the Paulo pick and it right those two things feel like they’re so far away from each other like thinking back to that 2021 draft lottery watch party that we had at Harry Buffalo. And then to think like the 2022 draft lottery watch party at Harry Buffalo, that one feels like it was just yesterday. Yeah. Well, that was one of the best nights of my life. So, yeah, I’m always going to remember that that night. But yeah, um but yeah, that which was crazy. Just to talk about that for another second, like until the last couple of seasons, like all these watch parties that we’ve done, like we always coordinated everything ourselves and we coordinated that 2021 draft lottery watch party with Harry Buffalo. I think we had like a hundred people there that night. Yeah. And then like we had planned on doing it again the next year and then what was it like a week or two before, right? The Magic reached out and said like, “Hey, we would love to be a part of this.” And that’s obviously become a a great partnership that has just allowed us to do things that I don’t think either of us ever thought we’d be able to do. Yeah, that yeah, that’s the thing like that 221 like yeah we we did coordinate that you know we coordinated that and then yeah they just kind of the magic showed up like hey hold on you guys you guys got quite a lot of interest in this let’s uh let’s join you and and yeah that was kind of the start of course it helps you know when it was just again one of the most magical nights ever um and so that kind of set the table but what I was going to say so yeah we we branched into you know like the live event space you know the watch parties which you if you’re really really new, you’ll see we do a fairly decent number of them throughout the season and then obviously in the postseason. Um, so that happens and then summer of 23 we branch into a new space uh something called the six fan show which is like where we try to get you know fans involved and uh Ben Gford has been you know hosting that for you know the last two seasons and so that was a cool thing I think that’s one of my favorite things uh you know getting fans involved because you know our our slogan is by fans for fans and we’ll talk about that in a second but yeah just getting fans involved and letting fans speak their mind and about the good and the bad and the highs and the lows. And then uh same same year, same season, for whatever reason, we also added our postgame lives, which are is our live show on YouTube after every game. And so we just kind of honestly we just kind of saw, at least for me personally, I was like, man, it feels like this team’s about to get good. Things about things are about to go crazy. And so let’s just freaking pedal to the metal and go for it. And that’s what we did. And ever since then, we’ve been kind of going crazy with the content um across, you know, all the different branches of this six-man show thing. Uh but it’s really fun. It’s it’s super fun and I we obviously love engaging with the fan base and love providing again just as as much content as we humanly can. That’s the other thing I don’t think we have mentioned yet while we’ve been talking about this. This is still a hobby. That’s the thing, right? Jonathan and I still have full-time jobs. We still have families. We still have all these things. And so, uh, we’re giving it literally every drop of blood, sweat, and tears that we possibly can. And all literally all three of those things are included. Like, yes, I’ve bled, cried, sweat over everything that we do here. Like, it’s it’s obviously hugely, you know, massively important to us. And part of the reason that I started the pod was like yes, I wanted to connect with other Magic fans, but and I wanted an outlet to talk about the team, but I also noticed that, you know, the team was like wildly underrepresented like in in media, you know, like there were a few other pods going at the time. And I’ve I’ve known, you know, for a while that it’s just going to be a matter of time and like once the Magic once again have like their day in the sun, you know, and hopefully it’s a really super long like 10-year kind of day. Um, you’re going to see other people just kind of like flood the space again. And and we are seeing that, right? I like just in the past, you know, couple of months, you know, I’ve seen other like new magic content creators pop into the space, which is awesome. I don’t think that people can talk about this team enough in in my opinion, but it’s just it’s it is cool to see that that now like people are saying like, yeah, I might have an interest in this team, but it’s it’s worth talking about because now people are are really going to listen. So, right. Um cool to to see that kind of evolution over the last like year really. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s and the thing is we’re we’re not done like we’re always trying to stay innovating. Um, and we have a couple things, you know, that we’re working on for this summer and for this coming season and seasons to come that I think are really exciting. Um, uh, but yeah, we’re we’re I don’t want to say like we’re not satisfied like it’s like like we’re, you know, I don’t know, out for a championship. We are, but I don’t mean like us as a show, but I mean literally like we don’t ever want to sit back and go, “All right, this is cool.” Like we’re making this content. like we’re always trying to think about how things can be better, you know, things that we’re currently doing or what new things can we try. Uh cuz that’s that’s one thing I do love. We’re not afraid to try new things, even if it sucks and we figure it out that it sucks and you know, we live and we learn, but we’re always down to try new things. And um yeah, all all at the uh uh I don’t want to say the expense, but all in the name of, you know, providing Magic content and providing a shared common space for Magic fans to be united. the expense of time with our families. That’s correct. Absolutely. Always, you know, a common thread. But no, there like if you were to go through a text thread between me, myself and Kevin, like there’s not a day or like a week that goes by of us having like not having conversations about, oh, maybe we need to change this with the show. Maybe we can try this. Like, oh, well, what do you think about this? Like those conversations are kind of always happening. Um, I’m going to throw Kevin a little bit of a curveball here cuz something that you didn’t mention. Talk about Men in Blue. Well, long before Jonathan Jonathan started True. No, it is true. Started the the Sixman show, I uh I hosted an Orlando Magic podcast. Uh we called it Men in Blue, the Men and Blue podcast. I think it’s a great great name. I love the logo that that we made. We took like the men in black look and kind of blurred out so you couldn’t see but that I put magic jerseys over the suits and I don’t know it was I was very proud of that. Uh but anyway, Men in Blue podcast uh me and uh a dear friend of mine from uh school, middle school at the time. Well, we weren’t in middle school. He was my friend from middle school. And then as we became adults similarly, you know, we were just two guys that were obsessed with this team and wanted to talk about it. And so that was 2015. We had a short run, a short tenure. It wasn’t even quite a year. Um, but yeah, I mean, that’s where I I started, you know, deciding I want to talk about this team for fun. And apparently a young Jonathan Osborne was a listener. And so that that’s part of the full circle moment, you know, when I reached out to him in 2021 about, hey, you know, I I might see that’s the other thing we didn’t say. Like I reached out like, hey, can I I’d be happy to help out at all, you know, whatever. It wasn’t like, “Hey, this guy’s going to come on and, you know, be a co-host right away.” You know, it was just kind of a, “Hey, I’d love to help out, whatever.” But then it was a full circle moment cuz you’re like, “Wait, didn’t believe.” That was like, it felt like it was a few weeks or like a couple of months into you kind of joining the team where I where you had brought that up and I was like, “Wait a minute, I listen to that. I listen to every episode of that.” Yeah. Yeah. It was It’s pretty crazy. But yeah, that that was a short run, but uh it was good. It was a good uh good outlet and yeah, it’s and look look where we are now. It’s pretty cool. So, no, I distinctively remember 2015 I was I was working at St. Luke’s the the eye clinic that I I used to work at. I was working in the Tampa office and like making the left off of I believe Bruce B. pounds on a Van Dyke like headed to the Sun Coast listening to to Men in Blue and and um you guys met in was it like a math class or Well, no. Uh so the school that me and my friend Adam attended uh was a tiny tiny Christian school to where like our class our graduate well I didn’t graduate from there but our e my I was there 8th and 9th grade so my eighth and nth grade class was like 21 23 people. So it wasn’t we didn’t meet in one class we were the same like we all moved from one class to the other. So we’d go from you know science to math to PE. So like you were just with these people all day every day for at least for me I was with them for two years and so you you find some people you like and find some people maybe you don’t get along with and then you just got you’re literally just you’re stuck with them all day every day. You eat with them. You I mean it just kind of is what it is. But anyway, so yes, I met Adam through that through being around the same 20 people all day every day for two years. So awesome. Yeah. So yeah. Um, I guess now pivot away from like the origin story. Just kind of talk a little bit about like what drives us, like the reason that we get on here and and do this twice a week during the off season. Kev or Sam or or Matt, you know, one of or myself. Yeah. And myself, you know, we’re doing anywhere from like three to four postgame lives. Um Kev, we didn’t mention this. Neither of us are local to Orlando. I I am local to central Florida. I live in Homosasa, but um usually about an hour and 40 minute drive uh outside of Orlando. Kev is up in Georgia. Usually about like a 4-hour drive, you know, to Orlando. So, um we still make it there as as much as we can. I’m usually there at least once a month. We the watch parties that we’ve talked about, usually those are about once a month, so I’m there for most of if not all of those. And then we’ll have, you know, other events going on throughout the season where we’ll do like a group night. Uh, obviously we’re we’ll go to a game with a bunch of listeners. Once a year we do our Court of Dreams event where we get to play on the Kia Center floor for a couple hours. Uh, usually before a Magic game um or just, you know, media day, other watch parties, especially during the playoffs, you know, we’re there constantly. So, um, you know, that obviously is a big commitment. the the time that we spend watching games, recording the pod, editing the pod, doing all the social stuff, all that kind of stuff. Even though this is a hobby, it pretty much is a additional full-time job, you know, for both of us. But really, like it’s it’s driven by the fact that number one, we love this team. Number two, we love the fans. We love this community. And growing up, you know, even if you’re, you know, part of our generation or a little bit younger, even growing up in Orlando, you may not know a ton of Magic fans, as weird as that seems, in large part because, you know, for the last, you know, 12 or 13 years, the majority of that the team has been bad. Um, and a byproduct of that is for years I would be at Magic Games and didn’t really matter, you know, almost half the league when they would come into the building, there would be close to, if not half or more of the opposing team’s fans in the stands and most Magic games would feel like away games for the Magic. So our thought is like, hey, if we can help like organically grow this fan base and like kind of give something, you know, people like can rally behind and try to like grow the fan base so that maybe one day the Magic will have like a permanent homec court advantage just based off of like this younger generation of Magic fans who at some point are going to be season ticket holders and and bringing their kids to games and bringing their friends to games and and etc. So, um, that’s just like a a small piece of kind of why we do everything that we do. Yeah. And if I just I’ll well, I don’t know if I Okay, I’ll say I’ll say a little bit of something about that. Like, part of it is also I want just peel back the curtain. If if you’re still here at 50 minutes into this episode, you deserve a little bit of There’s also part of me that I’m um I’m a glutton for punishment in some ways and also in a sense like I’m I’m dangerously loyal and Jonathan is too. Like I think that’s I mean obviously that’s kind of why we we do this cuz we’re like really really loyal. But there’s this thing off in the distance that like, man, the payoff as a Magic fan someday, if and when we win it all, the payoff is just going to be worth all of this, right? And so, yeah, and in some ways, like, as a content creator in this space, I think it also is the same way. And I don’t mean like a financial lucrative payoff or anything like that. I don’t I don’t ever think, well, I don’t know, maybe it’s possible. like the Golden State Warriors, they would didn’t have the biggest fan base in the world, you know, before the Steph Curry era. I mean, it’s a big market, but obviously they blew up into like this international global lifelong brand. I don’t know that the Magic are ever going to be that. But like within the space of the Orlando Magic content community, like being consistent as we try to do and being passionate and showing our love for the team someday, I just feel like it’s going to pay off in the sense like when we win that championship, it’s going to be just the biggest like just flood of emotions and like and like remember that one night, Jonathan, when we stayed up and did an episode at 1:00 a.m. after we got blown out by the Denver Nuggets back in 2021 or whatever, like remember that time we stayed up until 1:00 a.m. like waiting for that guest that like never joined that one really really important guest that was going to change you know anyway yeah like remember how miserable that was like and look at us now look at you know we we finally won like I don’t know that there’s also part of it that like you know it’s that it’s that dangerously loyal thing but uh but yeah what I what I love about it is you know you and I both doing the show has nothing to do with our fandom like even if the show disappeared tomorrow you and I would still watch every game and we’d probably still text and yeah I don’t You might you might like me enough to text me, you know, after games and stuff, you know, without the show. I’m I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. Oh, boy. That’s the other thing we haven’t mentioned. Uh Jonathan and I are not just uh partners in this six-man show venture. We’re now friends, which is cool. After uh you know, four Yeah, absolutely right. He’s one of my best friends on the planet and uh it’s it’s pretty cool. So, uh what was I saying? Oh, yeah. Regardless of the show, we’re Magic fans. Like, we’re part of this fan community. We love it, you know, almost as much as we love our own families. And so, it’s really cool to get to do this. And um again the sky’s is the limit as this a lot of fans have become like family. Oh 100% 100%. Yeah, we we joke, but when we go to games and like we’ll always, you know, tweet out, you know, hey, we’re going to be outside this section, you know, at halftime, it’s always like a magic, you know, family reunion at those kind of things, which has been really cool. And you and I talk about this all the time, but maybe not as much publicly, like as awesome as like a lot of the really cool opportunities have been a part of what has made this so great. like I know if the pod ended tomorrow like the relationships that we’ve built, you know, we will still be able to take that kind of stuff away. And to me, that’s that’s really what is ultimately the most important thing because sure, like the magic winning a championship would would be awesome, but at the end of the day, like it’s still just a team. It’s still just a game. like the the real people that we’ve been able to build relationships with and you know lifelong friendships with to me is is really ultimately the the best part of this like you know it’s it’s not even close but um but hey we’re also not shy about the fact that like hey right now this is just a hobby but we would love for it to be more than that you know like we’ve like Kevin was really the whole architect behind the postgame lives and like not that we don’t put like a ton into that, but like we’re always thinking of ways how we can make that better and you know now we’re trying to do some more like short form kind of content. Like how can we really dedicate more time to that for the people that like that kind of stuff more? Because first of all, if you’re still here 55 minutes into this, like you’re a real sicko. Not only are you a magic sicko, but you’re like a six-man show sicko if you’re still listening at this point. So, we understand that if we put an hour and 20 minute long YouTube video up, you know, a podcast episode, you’re most likely not even going to click on that unless you’re a diehard Magic fan. Unless something crazy has happened recently and you’re just a casual fan and you want to see our reaction to the Magic beating the Celtics in the inseason tournament on Black Friday or something like that. um you’re probably not clicking on these videos, but if it’s a seven minute video or a nine-minute video and you’re a casual fan, you just want to check in to see what’s going on with the magic, you may click on that video. And and those are things that we’re always thinking of like how can we make the content better so we can grow the the channel, grow the the reach of the show, all that kind of stuff because it would be awesome if, you know, we could take a little bit, you know, less time that we’re sacrificing with our families and um if this was a full-time thing, we don’t have this other job that we’re working 40 plus hours a week on. So, yeah, we would absolutely love if at some point this could become that full-time thing that would give us more time to focus on content. Um, be it at more Magic games, be it at more press conferences, be it more practices, all those kind of things. Um, but just kind of free us up to put more into that, but also it would it would make life a lot easier. It sure would. So, we don’t hide from that at all. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we talked about how we’re always trying to innovate. Like, the the list of ideas that Jonathan and I have that we just have no bandwidth to do is pretty crazy. And if if we were ever able to do that, I promise you, like the the content, like the not just the quantity, but the quality, like the depth of some of the things that we want to do, um yeah, it’d be it’d be awesome. It’d be great. But, uh yeah, can’t happen without you. So, um I know we mentioned it earlier in the show, but patreon.com/the6man show is a great way uh to, you know, help things move in that direction, but uh but yeah, always appreciate everybody. And again, if you’re still listening, you’re absolutely ridiculous and so glad you’re here in July. The only thing I’ll add, um, I don’t know if you have anything else really about, you know, the origin of the show and kind of, you know, what we’re trying to do, but as I was looking at the calendar, Jonathan, if the NBA does what they did last year, we are probably four weeks away from the release of the schedule, which to me, like we talked about it earlier in the show, like the different waves of the offseason. That’s the next wave on the horizon for me at least is the the uh schedule release sometime in mid August. So fingers crossed that that happens then. Maybe it comes sooner. Hey, if the NBA wanted to do us a favor and drop it even sooner, sign me up. Uh but yeah, last year it was uh that August, what was it? 14th or 15th or 16th or something like that. I don’t remember. 13th, something like that. But four weeks from today. Um but yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. So, the only thing that I would like to add to what you just said is that we do have some German basketball coming up, you know, that like first week of August. So, that’ll, you know, obviously German basketball or the Orlando Magic schedule. I’d rather have the schedule. Yeah. Which every year we do an entire pod like breaking down the schedule like that comes out. We pour over it for a couple hours and then we get on and and we get to talk about that. So, that’s Last year we did Last year we did a live show that day. We might have to do that again. we need to do more live shows. People seem to like that stuff and it’s, you know, it’s fun, you know, being able to interact with everybody and and they feel like they’re part of the show. Um, but yeah, you were talking about, you know, like a ton of things that we have ideas for that we just don’t have the ability to carry out. And it’s like with more reach comes more access and with more reach and access comes more resources, which just allows us to really get crazy. Like Kevin’s got some fantastic ideas that we just will never be able to do without, you know, the resources and the access that we would need to be able to, you know, talk to the people that we would want to be involved in that stuff. So, you all, you know, are are really the way that all that can happen. So, well, I hope you all, you know, got something from this at least. Maybe you learned something new about us or maybe just needed a good reminder of of why it is that we do what we do. Kev, did you have anything else? Um, you we’re almost, you know, we’re an hour into this now. Yeah, I was just going to say, yeah, I mean, yeah, Jonathan and I host the Sixman Show podcast and we run, you know, whatever this, you know, whole thing is, but I I’d like to thank everyone that listens to the show and comes to the Watch Parties and watches the postgame lives and all that stuff. You are also the six-man show. Like, you know, that’s kind of the origin of the name too, the six-man. Like, it’s this just group of dieh hard, you know, Magic fans. And so yeah, as as I thank Jonathan for starting this and for you know bringing me on and obviously becoming friends and stuff, I also thank all of you. Thanks for being here as part of the journey whether you’ve been here two days or you know since Jonathan started this you know 6 years ago. So thanks thanks everyone for being a part of the sixman show truly and that’s was really like the idea behind the six fan show is like hey we’ve built this platform like how can we share it with the people who have given us the platform and unfortunately we can’t have every magic fan on the pod. It just you know not a great listening experience probably but like that’s been our way of like hey how can we share this platform you know with other Magic fans. So yeah, like Kevin said, and we try to echo this every single episode, but none of this is is possible, you know, without the listeners. Like, you know, we we do the show, but it’s everyone’s show, you know, that’s that’s what we want it to feel like. Like we we want you all to feel like, you know, when we have an interview, you know, we’re asking questions that you all have and, you know, we’re asking questions that you all want to hear answers to. So that’s there probably is like one or two questions like an interview that we have especially when we have special guests where we’re like hey I personally really want to know this so we’ll go ahead and ask that but because we are so like you know in tune with you know the Magic fan community and and how Magic fans think I think we kind of just organically arrive at the questions that fans want to know the answers to and it’s just it’s just been awesome like I I never in a million years would have thought that the show would one day become what it is. And I I still think we have a long way to grow and a lot of upside still and a lot of things that we haven’t been able to do yet that we really want to do. Yeah. Um, and I don’t think Kevin thought when, you know, he reached out in May and of 2021 that, you know, we’d be able to travel around the country, you know, to different cities watching this team and just be able to meet some of the people that we’ve met and be invited to some of the things that we’ve been invited to. It’s just it’s such a privilege and like we literally never ever take this for granted. like is it hard to do 100 plus pods a year and you know hopefully this year it’ll be 100 plus postgame lives and all that kind of stuff like yeah it’s it’s really hard some nights do we have a little bit more gas in the tank than others yes um but like I can promise you like we never ever approach this as like h it’s whatever you know kind of thing like we always try to put on a good show and hopefully that comes across and you know if there’s anything that you all didn’t learn from this pod that you want to, you know, be free to, you know, send us an email or drop a comment on YouTube, all that kind of stuff. And then, um, Kev, in a few weeks here, our last episode of July, that’s going to be our anything but magic pod. That’s going to be what, two weeks from today. Uh, I think that’s right. Yeah. What do we say? The 20 uh the 30th. 29th. Yeah. The episode we record on the 29th and the episode comes out on the 30th. Yeah, that’s right. I think it No, we record on the 30th. It comes out the 31st. Oh, I’m looking at the calendar here. You’re right. You’re right. Yeah, that that’s it. That Thursday. Yep. So, that’s an episode where we call it anything but magic where we’re literally going to talk about anything but the magic. So, any question you possibly can think of, drop it, you know. Yep. Social media, YouTube comments, email, text the number, like whatever you guys want to do. Um, that’s always a fun episode and a little bit of a way to to break up the the offseason here. But yeah, and I know we’re about to wrap your Orlando Magic. They’re on a hot run here. They’re down six with 350 to go. Will they pull off the huge comeback against the Brooklyn Nets? Not for the first time in 2025. And there’s a Oh. Oh, he missed the layup. Okay, he’s going to the line. Chance to cut the lead to four. Man, thrilling basketball in Vegas. No, I don’t think we should stay on for the last 342 of this game. I think we should probably wrap it up. Noah Penda 22 minutes 53 seconds so far. 12 points, five rebounds, two assists, and a block. Four turnovers, four fouls. None of that stuff really, you know, matters or or counts, you know, when it comes to to summer league. So, yeah, if you’re listening to this, obviously you’ll know the the um ending of that game. Um but we’re going to use this point to go ahead and wrap this one up. Thank you all so much for staying on for this long at this point. But for Kevin Tucker, this has been Jonathan Osborne. You all have been listening to the Sixth Man Show and we will catch you guys next time. See you. Thanks for listening to the Sixth Man Show. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and Spotify to get new episodes downloaded directly to your phone. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to give us a five-star rating and a review. It helps out the show a lot. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @ sixmanshow. We’ll catch you guys next time. Go Magic. Let’s go Magic. Let’s go Magic. Let’s go Magic.

Summer League is mostly over for the Orlando Magic, we discuss what stood out to us the most as well as our yearly reintroduction to ourselves and why we do what we do.

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