Orlando Magic 30th Anniversary Screen Print by Stolitron x Phenom Gallery

Phenom Gallery continues to its epic line of officially licensed NBA screen prints with a very special poster celebrating the Orlando Magic’s 30th Anniversary! It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years since the team’s inaugural season. To celebrate this monumental anniversary, artist Stolitron has designed a killer tribute to four legends of the franchise: Shaquille O’Neal, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, Nick Anderson and Tracy McGrady.

The Orlando Magic 30th Anniversary Screen Print by Stolitron and Phenom Gallery measures 18”x24”, comes signed and numbered by the artist, and is limited to just 300 pieces. Fans can purchase this 5 color print at the Orlando Magic Team Shop at the Amway Center for just $40. A very limited run of Printer Proofs of this print are currently available at the Phenom Gallery online store. Limited to just 30 pieces these Printer Proofs retail for $60.

The 2009 NBA Finals - Lakers vs. Magic

The Blot’s been waiting for the start of the 2009 NBA Finals for what feels like forever now. While I’ve hated the long hiatus, it’s probably been a really good thing for my beloved Lakers since they were looking extremely worn out after playing every other day for two weeks. I am happy that the Finals are not the Kobe v. Lebron dream match-up that the NBA, Nike and Vitamin Water were all hoping it would be.


While I loved Nike’s Kobe and Lebron puppet commercials, let’s be honest, for all of Lebron James’ accolades he is no Kobe Bryant. I hate how everyone and their mother compares Lebron to Michael. If anything he should be compared to A.I. Like Iverson, Lebron scores a ton, won an MVP award and got his team to the finals...once. But in the end he just can’t win the big one. But enough about Prince James…


With Cleveland’s loss to Orlando, the Lakers now have home court advantage. While that is a huge advantage for LAL, I’d almost rather be playing the Cavs because the Lakers match-up so much better against them than the Magic. That isn’t to say I’m worried about Dwight Howard and co., but they are harder to defend with their two highly talented swingmen, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. Plus, Orlando swept the Lakers in the only two games they played against each other this year.

But I’m not worried because the Lakers have the greatest coach in NBA history, the zen-master Phil Jackson. I could go on and on making arguments for why Los Angeles should dominate this series, but if it were that easy to predict they wouldn’t need to play the games. So I'll just leave it at that and we’ll see what happens in just a few short hours.

The 2009 NBA Finals start tonight, Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 9/8c on ABC.

Dwight Howard wins the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest

Dwight “Superman” Howard, the first overall pick 0f the 2004 NBA draft, won the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Saturday night. The third year pro and two-time NBA All-Star from the Orlando Magic found a new nickname for himself with his second dunk of the contest. After taking off his Magic jersey to reveal a Superman shirt and donning a red cape, Howard took off and made one of the sickest dunks I’ve ever seen. While I’m not sure if the move really counted as a dunk since he actually threw the ball through the hoop after getting way too high in the air, nevertheless the dunk was awarded the perfect score of 50 by the panel of NBA all time greats.


This was after his first dunk which consisted of bouncing the ball off the back of the backboard and dunking the ball under the backboard while his head was still behind the hoop. That dunk also scored a perfect 50 catapulting into the Slam Dunk Contest finals. For his first dunk of the final round Howard completed a third straight unbelievable dunk by throwing himself an alley oop, then after jumping into the air he slapped it off the backboard with his left hand and in the same motion caught it with his right hand for the monster throw down. It was a truly ridiculous dunk that could only be appreciated in slow-motion replay.


To end the night Howard grabbed a ball mid-flight, which had been resting on the backboard from a mini-hoop stuck on the regulation hoop, and windmill dunking it to cap off one of the most amazing slam dunk competitions in recent history. Howard brought fun and imagination back to an event that truly needed a pick-me-up and definitely earned his new nickname of Superman.