In one of the strangest turns of events in sports that haven’t involved Ron Artest, A-Rod or Barry Bonds, Billy Donovan took every one in Florida, the media and fans of basketball – both college and NBA – for a nice spin over the past few days.
Donovan, who is coming off two straight NCAA titles with the Florida Gators, built a dynasty of sorts at the school. But with his highly touted five starters leaving school for greener pastures, it seemed Donovan would be in tough for next season at least.
He even had turned down a job opportunity at Kentucky, one of the more prestigious basketball schools in the nation and didn’t pay much attention to possible NBA suitors.
So, with the front seemingly calm, a proverbial bombshell dropped when the Orlando Magic announced that Donovan would be making the leap to the NBA to become their coach. It was to the sweet tune of $27.5 M as well.
Here comes the twist, after the ink had dried on the contract and on all of the presses, he changed his mind. Turns out he didn’t really want to leave Florida State after all.
Now, with the messy situation of having signed the contract, Orlando now is trying to get Donovan out and bring in Stan Van Gundy.
This whole situation reeks and Billy Donovan claims a spot on the jack ass list for sure. Why leave two teams out of the loop while you hem-and-haw over where you want to work; especially when you’re under contract. I wasn’t a fan of his coaching work to begin with and his character should now seriously in question, wherever he ends up.