By MarcerMercer

Derrick Rose dribbles the ball down to half-court. A quick pass to Bradley Beal, who quickly pump-fakes his defender and penetrates to the rim. DeMar DeRozan, eyeing the broken defense, makes a cut. Beal makes an excellent pass, and DeRozan shoots his trademark mid-range — it’s good.

In the year 2025, these memories seem so distant. A narrative of a time long past, with heroes that have been forgotten, villains that have been defeated. The landscape has changed far and wide.

But some hints of the old world still remain in the league. Star Bradley Beal is on the Washington Bullets. The Utah Jazz still have Donovan Mitchell, the Indiana Pacers’ Kemba Walker just retired with Victor Oladipo still on the team. The Houston Rockets continue to fleece teams, and the New York Knicks still can’t make the Finals. I, for one, still remember those days vividly. Magic basketball, for at least the year, was the most beautiful, unselfish basketball I had ever seen.

No member of the team averaged above 20 points, with their All-Star DeMar DeRozan barely hitting 20.0 PPG. Both DeRozan and Beal averaged over 6 assists a game. All the role players knew their jobs — from hardened veteran Derrick Rose who orchestrated the league’s best offense, to Myles Turner who anchored the impressive fourth-ranked defense. Against all odds, in a league dominated by Davises, Hardens, and Antetokounmpos, the Orlando Magic came out with the best record of the league at 71-11 — Exodus’s first 70-win season.

And so let’s turn back time a little, and try to remember. It’s a story too good to be left forgotten.

On a rainy Tuesday night, RJ patiently picked up the phone. It was a call from a fellow General Manager. He had been waiting for it. “Hello?” he answered. “Are you ready to make the trade?” A quiet murmur can be heard as RJ’s serious expression slowly cracks into a smile. “The deal is done then,” he stated. And with that, the call was over.

On that Tuesday, August 23, 2019, RJ (also known as Chris Haynes) made his first real trade towards contention. In a blockbuster deal, the Orlando Magic acquired Bradley Beal, along with a second round pick, from the Washington Wizards. The price wasn’t low — it costed the Magic two of its own first round picks, along with promising prospects Jonathan Isaac and Mohamed Bamba. At the time, even I felt that the move was a failed attempt at contention. The consensus around the league was: “All that for a first round exit?”

We all made a critical mistake — we underestimated RJ. He wasn’t done yet.

Just hours later, the Orlando Magic acquired Andre Drummond and Derrick Rose from the Detroit Pistons, sending Nikola Vucevic, Chuma Okeke, DaQuan Jeffries, and two seconds. A good move, perhaps, but not nearly enough to turn the sinking ship that was the Magic around.

Less than five minutes later, news broke that the Orlando Magic had acquired 3&D specialist Otto Porter from the Chicago Bulls. They picked up good bench pieces Bryn Forbes, DeMarre Carroll, and Drew Eubanks from the Spurs and then got Robin Lopez, Donte DiVincenzo, Sterling Brown, Frank Mason III, and Kyle Korver from Milwaukee — all for one Dennis Schroder. They then received Austin Rivers and Tyson Chandler from the Rockets, to round out one of the best benches in Exodus history.

It all too soon became clear to me that RJ had a goal — to create the deepest, most synergistic team of all time. He wasn’t just looking for the superstars of the league, or even the fringe All-Stars. No, he seemed to understand that what makes a basketball team function isn’t reckless starpower, but methodical chemistry.

But Exodus is a star’s league — no matter how good the chemistry is, there’s no way a team led by Bradley Beal, Derrick Rose, and Robin Lopez were beating Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks. RJ needed to find his cherry on top — the final star to complete the Christmas tree.

On Tuesday night, 8 minutes before the clocks struck midnight, the league office was notified of a trade. The Orlando Magic had sent recently-acquired Andre Drummond to the Pacers for Myles Turner, TJ Leaf, Royce O’Neale, and a second round pick.

That was one star.

Only a few hours later, in Wednesday morning, the Orlando Magic acquired All-Star DeMar DeRozan for Otto Porter, Donte Divincenzo, and only one first round pick. After a down year for the mid-range enthusiast, he was being shopped at a low price — and the Magic decided to take advantage. That was two.

And now, the Orlando Magic Christmas tree was complete. It was now time to play.

On opening night, the Magic faced the championship-contending LA Clippers. Widely projected to be the league’s best team, Vegas had the Magic losing by 13 points.

The Orlando Magic won the game by 10.

Fueled by an incredible 32/8/1 performance from Aaron Gordon and a 21/9/8 performance from DeMar DeRozan, the undervalued Magic crushed the Clippers and shocked the world. The Magic’s terror on the league would continue. After a month, the Orlando Magic were 25-3, hot off an emphatic destruction of the Washington Bullets that pushed their win streak to 18. They were unstoppable.

What struck me most while watching their games were their absolute unity and precision. Somehow, the Magic front office had gathered together a ragtag group of underdogs and motivated them to work together. Using their shared eagerness to prove themselves, the entire Magic team performed like nothing I had ever seen.

I was in attendance against a marquee matchup against the New York Knicks, who fielded both Karl-Anthony Towns and Ben Simmons. The Orlando Magic continued to demonstrate a gorgeous offense. They had 26 assists, 21 hockey assists, and more than 20 potential assists. No member of the team scored more than 20 points that night.

As it approached closer and closer to the final buzzer, the game had only gotten more and more intense. With 1 minute and 21 seconds left in the fourth, the score was 99-100. Gary Harris missed a mid-range shot and gave the Magic a chance to take the lead. They called a timeout. I reclined into the back of my seat and began thinking of what the Magic could possibly draw up. A DeMar DeRozan fadeaway? A Bradley Beal open three? A Derrick Rose-Aaron Gordon PNR?

The Orlando Magic came back with Derrick Rose, Bradley Beal, Austin Rivers, DeMar DeRozan, and Aaron Gordon. Beal was on the inbound. He threw the ball to DeMar DeRozan, huddled in the left corner. DeRozan quickly drove past his defender. KAT came to help, and DeRozan made the quick pass to an open Gordon in the opposite corner. As Gordon rose to shoot, Millsap made a quick run at him. Gordon saw it coming — a quick pass to Rose at the top of the key, who then passed to a driving, open Austin Rivers. Rivers lays it in for his first two points of the game.

The Magic won the game 101-100.

I was stunned. Rivers took the last shot? Austin Rivers had averaged less than 10 points per game. He was in the rotation, but saw few minutes. But with the game on the line, DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal, Aaron Gordon, and Derrick Rose all gave up their chance at fame to make the right decision and pass to the open man. That possession defined Orlando Magic basketball.

The rest of the season played out in very much the same way. The Orlando Magic acquired Buddy Hield, who fit their motion offense perfectly. They continued to defy expectations and became the first seed in the East after going 71-11. A fairy-tale like Exodus has never seen.

RJ easily won GM of the Year. With his expertise in trading, he had crafted a championship team totally in sync. All that was left was to win it all.

The Orlando Magic easily dispatched the 8 seed Raptors 4-1. Despite a minor Aaron Gordon injury, the depleted Raptors stood no chance against the East titans.

It was time for the second round against the 4th seed Indiana Pacers. They were a scrappy team and the Orlando Magic couldn’t mess around. The two teams traded the first two games. It was time for a defining game three.

The Pacers arena was roaring. The referee slowly made his way to the middle of the court, blew his whistle, and the ball was up. The game had begun.

The Orlando Magic won the tip and began the game with an easy two for DeRozan. The Pacers immediately responded with a two of their own from Victor Oladipo. Soon, the score was 15-17, with the Magic up by 2 in the high-scoring game.

With 7:41 left in the first, the Magic began their next possession. With a quick and fluid offense, the ball touched all five players in just 11 seconds before it reached Bradley Beal. Beal went for a quick drive and jumped into the air, hoping for a easy layup. But the takeoff was awkward. It didn’t help that Andre Drummond would soon come crashing into Beal. As the ball left Beal’s fingertips, Drummond slammed into him and Beal dropped to the ground with a thud. A shout was heard, and soon a terrified Drummond walked slowly out of the paint to reveal a struggling Beal grasping for his knee. The arena fell silent.

Bradley Beal tore his meniscus. He was out for the season.

The Magic would rally back to win Game 3, but their personnel and morale had taken a hit. Their star to finish the Christmas tree had dropped down and hit the floor. Everything was amiss.

The Orlando Magic lost 3-4 to the Indiana Pacers in the 2020 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

On a rainy night, RJ sat in his room, alone. Lightning flashed, and thunder roared. His GMOTY trophy decorated only half of the top of his drawer. The phone didn’t ring that night. Instead, he picked it up and dialed a number. A beep indicated that someone had picked up. “I announce my resigning,” he spoke through the phone.

What followed was a complete collapse of the once-proud, rag-tag group known as the Orlando Magic. Headed by infamous GM shakur, the team quickly traded away stars Myles Turner and Aaron Gordon and lost Bradley Beal and DeMar DeRozan in free agency. Only two seasons after going an incredible 71-11, the Magic went 10-72 to finish last in the league.

The Orlando Magic fell just as it had risen. Quietly, surprisingly — quickly. But whatever the Orlando Magic are now, the passion and the unity of the 2020 season are gone.

In the 2022 season, while the Orlando Magic went 12-70, DeMar DeRozan and Bradley Beal reunited on the Washington Bullets. Despite being trifled by age, the two carried the team to its first Finals appearance. As the first game of the Finals was about to begin, DeRozan and Beal shared a glance and nodded at each other. They turned around to face the game and their opponents — a Utah Jazz led by Donovan Mitchell and De’Aaron Fox, the same duo that made and won the Finals two years ago.

What could have been, man. What could have been.

MarcerMercer is a hobbyist writer, computer scientist, and the commissioner for the Exodus League. To contact him for more information, please email exoduscommissioner@gmail.com.