Eleven of the 13 players on the Magic's roster have spent the past week in Philadelphia as a guest of Nelson's working out on the basketball court and bonding away from it. It's the third consecutive year that Nelson, Orlando's starting point guard and a native of Chester, Pa., has arranged the offseason retreat dubbed, "Building Magic." Nelson picked up the tab for flights and lodging for the team while in Philadelphia.
Howard, Team USA's starting center in the Olympics, and small forward Hedo Turkoglu, who is in his native Turkey, were the only players to miss the retreat. The camp is voluntary and the Magic have no contact with the team during the retreat, per NBA rules.
Magic players have spent the past five days working in the mornings on strength and conditioning exercises at Villanova and then scrimmaging in the afternoons. The morning sessions included boxing workouts, balance exercises and video analysis of proper running and jumping techniques.
And in their spare time, the team has dined together, held bowling and paintball tournaments and attended a Philadelphia Phillies game as a group. Nelson, a former college star at St. Joseph's, even threw out the first pitch before Wednesday's game. The team will close the retreat this weekend with a gambling junket to Atlantic City, N.J.
This is the 3rd year that Nelson has done this and its fantastic. Thats what you call taking the leadership role by the horns.
Oh and Denton embarrasses the Sentinel again, whats new lmao.
anyways, glad to see him stepping it up again for the team!
