Why even have a GM then? At one point in the recent past, however, Martins and the team’s owners, the DeVos family, disagreed with Weltman’s predecessor about a potential coaching hire — and the Magic ultimately hired the candidate whom Martins and the DeVoses favored.
Multiple sources told the Sentinel that then-Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan and his staff within the Magic’s basketball operations department first wanted Adrian Griffin to succeed Scott Skiles as head coach after Skiles abruptly quit on May 12, 2016.
Griffin had worked as the Magic’s lead assistant coach throughout the 2015-16 season, and Hennigan wanted to promote Griffin even though Vogel was available. The Indiana Pacers had dismissed Vogel earlier in the month.
Sources said Hennigan and basketball-operations department staffers thought Griffin was ready to become a head coach, would provide Magic players some badly needed continuity and already understood the players’ strengths and weaknesses.
At some point following Skiles’ resignation, Hennigan communicated with Martins and told Martins about the preference to hire Griffin.
When Martins was asked by the Sentinel about his dialogue with Hennigan — and specifically whether Hennigan was overruled — Martins said Hennigan had freedom to hire whomever Hennigan wanted.
At the same time, however, Martins acknowledged to the Sentinel that he and the DeVos family favored hiring Vogel, who had compiled a 250-181 regular-season record and twice reached the Eastern Conference finals during a six-year tenure as the Pacers’ head coach.
Griffin, on the other hand, had never been an NBA head coach.
The Magic ultimately hired Vogel.
“Rob was not overruled,” Martins told the Sentinel. “Rob was given our opinion and was told, ‘It’s his decision to make.’ And he made that decision. He was never overruled. He was never told that he had to hire Frank. He was never given an ultimatum. He asked for both my and ownership’s opinion, and we gave it to him. But the very last thing that we said to him in that instance was, ‘This is your decision to make.’ And he made the decision.”
The Magic fired Hennigan on April 13, 2017.
Martins set one condition during his search for Hennigan’s successor. Martins said he told all candidates that Vogel would remain the Magic’s coach for the 2017-18 season.
These are those basketball decisions that should be left to people who know the game.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-sp-orlando-magic-coaching-search-jeff-weltman-0428-story.html
