Let’s rewind back to the year 2007. The Orlando Magic are in desperate need of a head coach. Where oh where will they turn? Why, just down the road to Gainesville, where Billy Donovan, head coach of the Florida Gators basketball team, has just come off his second-straight national championship. After a brief courtship, Donovan and the Magic agreed upon a deal that would make Donovan the next coach of the Magic.
Three days later, he backed out of the deal and returned to Gainesville.
Now it appears as if Donovan wants another (or his first, technically) shot at an NBA coaching gig, according to ESPN.
Sources told ESPN.com that Donovan is poised to draw interest from multiple NBA teams this offseason and is increasingly prepared to listen to those pitches after the Gators endured a 16-17 season in which they failed to qualify for postseason play for just the second time in Donovan’s nearly two decades in Gainesville.
Interestingly enough, Donovan just signed a one-year extension with the Gators through 2020 that bumps his annual salary to around $4 million, per the Gainesville Sun. That extension, however, wouldn’t prevent Donovan from making the leap to the NBA. His buyout is $500,000, which won’t be a problem for any team should they decide Donovan is their guy.
Currently, there are only two head coaching vacancies: the Denver Nuggets and the Orlando Magic (time is a flat circle). Both of those teams went with the unproven head coaches in their first go-around – Brian Shaw for the Nuggets, Jacque Vaughn for the Magic – and while Donovan would probably be a good fit for either team, it’d be surprising to see either team go in the “inexperienced” direction again.
(ESPN)
