Bob Vander Weide
“I just want to thank you for being here. I think from the time I woke up this morning I have had a big smile on my face for a lot of reason – the opportunity to sit here with Brian and his family, the opportunity to look ahead with this basketball with Brian as its leader and just know that it feels right. It feels good, and I have the utmost confidence in Brian. As we went through the process, there were a number of good candidates. But Brian, through the interview process, through the one-on-ones, through the individual visit, through the Q & A… he just kept coming up on top. I couldn’t be more happy to be sitting here, looking at the Hill family, sitting here next to Brian. Brian is a great coach, and we are fortunate enough to have him back guiding the Magic’s ship. It is with a great smile and great anticipation that I give you our new leader, the head coach of the Orlando Magic basketball team, Mr. Brian Hill.”

Brian Hill
“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be back. Obviously this is a great day for me, a great day for our family. We are truly excited about the opportunity to be back in Orlando, to be back with the Magic organization. As you all know, I have spent seven years in this organization prior, and we had a nice run and a lot of good times. But the thing that always impressed me the most was the organization, the ownership, the leadership, Mr. DeVos and his family and Bob Vander Weide and the management team. In the years that I have been away, it has always kind of been in the back of my heart to try to get back to the Magic organization, and I can’t tell you how happy a day it is for me and for my family. I really want to extend my sincere appreciation for Rich DeVos and the DeVos family, to Bob and his family, and to the management team for having the faith in me to come back and run this operation again as a head basketball coach. The only thing that I can say is that I believe I worked hard my first seven years here, but I will work even that much harder to try and bring the Magic back to a championship caliber organization as it was in the mid-90’s. That takes a lot of commitment from a lot of people, but I think the pieces are here to build that type of basketball team. I am obviously looking forward to getting with all the players and meet them and get to know them better and to really start working to build a true team and get the type of team that people in the Magic organization and people here in the community of Orlando can be proud to come and watch and have that team represent them as the true professional sports team here in the community.”

Can you talk about when the offer came, and did you ever think the offer would come full-circle?
“I never really thought about whether it would all come full-circle or not. The offer actually came Sunday and I met with Rich DeVos and with Bob in Grand Rapids and that is when Mr. DeVos informed me that he would love for me to come back and be the coach of this basketball team again. Do you ever think it is going to run full circle? I don’t know, you might dream and hope that it runs full-circle, but I don’t know that you ever think that it’s going to run full-circle. Obviously for myself and my family, we look at it as a wonderful opportunity. I think many people know, many may not, that we have never left Orlando. Our permanent home has been in Orlando since I came to the Magic in 1990. So from my perspective and our perspective as a family, this is our home. Central Florida is our home and I think it is always your goal and your desire to make your home area the best, and that is what I want this basketball team to be. I want it to be the best basketball team that has ever represented the city of Orlando and this organization.”

Did you fear that this shot at a head coaching position would never come again, and how are you different now?
“You probably always wonder whether you are ever going to get a shot. I had opportunities here in Orlando and in Vancouver, and I have been an assistant coach in the NBA for the last four years. But to me, it has always been about coaching basketball. Obviously you would love to be a head coach, but I have been doing this for 36 years, so this is my passion. This is what I love to do. So whether you are coaching as an assistant coach or a head coach, you are still coaching basketball and still coaching at the highest level, and you get a great deal of satisfaction out of working with players at the highest level of the game. How am I different? I would like to think that as you, especially in this profession that I have chosen, if you think you have learned everything, you are on the road to failure. I think every year you try to go out and try to learn a little bit more. You learn it from the coaches that you work for and with; you learn it from the players that you coach. And I think obviously I have been blessed to be around a lot of outstanding players in my career in the NBA. It’s too long a list to get into now, but when you add all the teams – the Atlanta Hawks, the Orlando Magic, the New Orleans Hornets, the New Jersey Nets and the Vancouver Grizzlies – there is probably 10-12 All-Stars in there and probably four or five guys that are going in the Hall of Fame. I think that is what you really learn as you move through the process, is dealing with professional athletes. Everyone is different, everyone is handled a little different, so I think you grow in a lot of areas. You grow as a person, I think you grow as a coach, I think you grow in terms in managing people.”

Did you interview with any other teams and does the state of coaching worry you?
“The situation in the NBA with coaching has obviously changed and the landscape has changed over the last couple of years. We saw yesterday Jim O’Brien being fired after one year and he replaced Randy Ayers who coached them 53 games in Philadelphia. To me, the league is what it is. We are not going to change that. As a coach, the only think you can do is come in and do the best job that you possibly can. I think the key in this situation for me is that I feel very comfortable with the ownership here, with Mr. DeVos and the DeVos family, with the management team, with Bob and David Twardzik and Otis Smith and the people I will be working hand-in-hand with. And it is a partnership – we all have to be on the same page to make is successful. The status of coaching in the NBA doesn’t really concern me. What concerns me is making sure I go out every day and do my job to the best of my ability and try to help my players to be better individually every day and better collectively as a team everyday. And if I do that then I think everything else will take care of itself. And I did not interview with any other teams.”

Does your success and popularity make it harder or easier to come back?
“I don’t think it makes it harder to come back. I don’t think there is any way it would make it harder. Certainly the fact that our family has remained in the community and we have done fundraising events in the community and I have gotten to know a lot of people in the Orlando area over the last 15 years, it just makes it that much easier really. There is going to be as far as expectations and pressure and things of that nature – that is just part of the job. That is not really something that I worry about. I can say that today because we haven’t lost a game. You don’t really worry about that. To me it is a plus, because I love Orlando, I love the community of Orlando, I love this organization, and that makes it easier for me to go about my job every day and do it to the best of my ability and help this organization get back to being a championship caliber organization, which is, I think, a great thing for the city of Orlando.”

When did you hear about John Weisbrod’s decision and did that hinder you at all?
“I didn’t know anything about John Weisbrod’s resignation until Sunday night when I met with Mr. DeVos. Obviously I have gone through the process of interviewing with John and with David Twardzik and with Otis Smith, and I thought that went extremely well. I was very excited after meeting with John and Dave and Otis, and then my discussions were turned over to Bob as the next step of the process in trying to bring a coach in. I had no second thoughts whatsoever.”

You said that you love the organization – why do you still love in considering the way you left it?
“I have had an opportunity to work with five different organizations now within the NBA. To be honest with you, the only organization that even approached this organization from a standpoint of leadership and how they ran the organization and how they handled their people was the Nets organization. You know when you have something good and you leave it, and you have substitutes, whether it is girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever the case may be – when you have things to compare it to, you realize ‘boy, that situation is pretty darn good.’ And I always knew that this was a top organization and that at some point and time in my career that I was striving to get back to. I am just very happy to come back as its head coach.”

Do you think teams are going out now and looking for teams who can provide structure and discipline?
“I think a lot of stuff gets overblown as to exactly what teams need and everything else. Do you need structure and discipline coaching in the NBA today? Sure you do. But you need to be able to manage people, you need to be able to communicate with people, you need to be able to obviously coach the game of basketball, you need to be able to motivate people. Our goal here is a common goal – to win an NBA championship – and getting to that goal is a long process, a long journey. You can get there if the foundation is established properly. A foundation to me is first of all, you have to have talented players, and you have to have talented players with character that are wanting to commit themselves to your goal. I am looking at the players here, and I see talent here, I see a team that is capable of starting that journey and continuing to grow toward being a championship caliber team. Does it start with discipline and commitment and things of that nature? Absolutely, and I think probably the other 29 head coaches in the NBA would probably tell you the same thing.

Have you had discussions, maybe not now, but in the future becoming the general manager of this franchise?
“I wouldn’t say they were ever discussions about being the general manager of the franchise. Bob and I have discussed over the last couple years any potential opportunity down the road of me coming back in to the organization. And I think Bob always knew something that I would aspire to down the road, and if the opportunity were ever there, they knew it was something that I would definitely be interested in. A position was never really discussed; it was more just coming back into the organization in a basketball capacity.”

How much is this what many people perceived as righting a wrong that happened many years ago?
“I don’t perceive it as that at all. I had a phenomenal seven-year run here. I alluded to points earlier here about my feelings for the DeVos family and the management team here at the organization. That is part of coaching. Quite honestly, if you are a coach in the NBA and you spend seven years in one organization – there are not a lot of guys that are doing that today. What happened in 1997 to me really has no bearing on this. I think am a different coach, I am sure this is a somewhat different organization; all of the players are completely different. My job is to come back and coach to the best of my ability and try to get this team back to the type of contender that we were back in the mid-90’s.”

(Bob Vander Weide)
“Let me just add to that. With all the hours I have spent with Brian over the last four or five days, I don’t think we spent a minute on the past. It was all about where we are as an organization, team-wise, what it would take to improve us. From the get-go in our conversations, it was all about taking this from where it’s at and moving it on in a forward direction. I don’t think we talked about it, I don’t think we feel it. We had a great run together when we were together the first time, and we anticipate that the second time will be just as good.”

What are your thoughts on putting together a staff of coaches?
“I think I have a lot of work to do in that area. I can’t sit here and throw out any names to be honest with you. I feel that one of the strengths of myself and my staff has always been and will continue to be hard-working, attention to detail, preparation, try to leave no stone unturned going into a game. I know I will find people where time will not be a factor in terms of working with players on an individual basis, either before or after practice. The game today is just as much about player development as it is about X’s and O’s and things of that nature on the court. Players coming into the league are younger and younger, and we need to spend more and more time with players in developing them. So, the only thing I can say is I have a list of people I will be contacting and I think they will be complementary to me. I’ve always been the type of coach that, I don’t want three or four people working alongside of me that are exactly like me and say ‘yes’ to everything I say. You want a coaching staff that is going to stimulate my thought process a little bit, and challenge me as a coach, because that’s going to make me a better head coach. I in turn, give my staff a lot of freedom, which will help them develop into potential head coaches somewhere down the road.”

Do you have a good feel for the team you take over and what do you see for this team?
“Well you don’t really have a feel for a team until you’ve coached them obviously. Competing against them (as an asst. with New Jersey), the team was completely made over last year. Competing against them for us in New Jersey was a difficult game. Their style of game made it difficult for us. But when I look at the pieces, when I look at a Grant Hill, when I look at a Stevie Francis, when I look at what I think is going to be a great, young player in Dwight Howard, and then when I look at some of the veteran players in the starting five and coming off the bench, to me, that’s a plus. Then you have another outstanding player in Jameer Nelson, I think they’ve done a very nice job of revamping the team and obviously last year with the draft, I am excited and looking forward to the personnel that is here. Does every team need some kind of improvement? Unless you get that gold trophy with the ball on it at the end of the year, you’re looking to try and improve your team somehow. I think the nucleus is here to build a good and exciting basketball team.”

Do you have any relationships with anyone on the current roster, or with Dave Twardzik or Otis Smith? Have you begun to think about the style of play with the current team knowing the roster you have?
“As far as relationships with players, I have never coached any of the players on this team, so I have no relationship in that way. You get to know guys a little bit through the course of being in the NBA together. I have had conversations with Grant Hill, and Pat Garrity was nice enough to come up into the office and talk today – just very casual conversations with players on the team. I thought I was going to have a relationship with Steve Francis a few years back in Vancouver, but I got a little bit blind-sided on that one and never got the opportunity to coach Steve, so I am looking forward to that. In the organization, obviously Otis Smith was a player here when I was an assistant with Matt Goukas. I have a great deal of respect for Otis and the way he was always committed to the game. I know he will do an outstanding job on the management team here in Orlando. I came into the NBA in 1986 as a rookie coach and on the road doing advance scouting for the Atlanta Hawks. I spent a lot of nights in a lot of arenas sitting next to a guy named Dave Twardzik, who kind of showed me a lot about advance scouting and a couple decent restaurants along the way. I have known Dave on and off through the years – he obviously went on and left the coaching ranks and went into the front office. I have always felt very comfortable around Dave, and he actually interviewed me in Golden State when he was the general manager for the Warriors. I am very comfortable here really, and I am really looking forward to getting started and developing relationships with the players.”

Style of play?
“Shaq is not here anymore is he? That is going to affect our style of play a little bit. I think the game has changed – the last time I was here the rules of the game were a little bit different, so you always play according to the rules of the game. How do I like to play? I like to play an up-tempo type of game. You have to find ways to score easy points in the game today. To me, easy points are fast breaks, free throws, second shot opportunities. I think you have ball and player movement. The days of one player coming down the floor and just going one-on-one, or the ball staying on one side of the floor, teams are too good defensively today. You have to initiate your offense on one side, get into the other side, move the ball, move people. I am very big on shot selection; I’m very big on attacking the basket, getting to the free throw line. There is all little nuances in the game, obviously that are part of winning. That having been said about offense, I think it is on the defensive end of the floor where you really win, where you win championships. If there is one area that I am really going to stress, it is going to be the defensive end of the floor, the individual accountability to play people, the team responsibility to play people, to build that trust within the five players on the floor that you have to have to play great individual and team defense. I don’t think you can be a real successful team in this league today unless you are a good defensive team. You may not have to be great if you have great scorers, but you have to be a good defensive team and I think that has to be your foundation if you are going to have aspirations of being a championship caliber team.”

(Bob Vander Weide)
Bob, how long did you sign his contract for?
“Multi-year. Brian has security and he is going to be here.”