Despite years of finding themselves in the wilderness, the Orlando Magic had the kind of 2019 that a lot of other franchises in the NBA would have liked.

The Orlando Magic may have had a rough decade, by the standards of any organization in any sport, but they left it until 2019 to really begin to turn things around. Up to that point they had been something even worse than bad. Irrelevant. Nobody paying attention to what they were doing, because in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter.

The middle portion of the decade defined by a general manager in Rob Hennigan, who led the Magic further into the darkness at a time when they were supposed to be assembling young players through the NBA Draft as a result of Dwight Howard wanting to join the Los Angeles Lakers.

The fact Howard is back in L.A. for his second stint and performing well off the bench serves as yet another reminder that sports, as in life, truly is unpredictable.

But they couldn’t even lose correctly, never quite bad enough to nab the first pick on any year, while also fielding teams that were bad and sore to look at, but also capable of pulling off the odd win or two that would keep them away from the true tanking done by the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers.

They saw Victor Oladipo come and go and it was unclear at their lowest point exactly how they were going to turn this aimless mess around. But a new front office brought with it a new direction and the hiring of head coach Steve Clifford, who replaced the bumbling Frank Vogel. Vogel looked good on paper, but the fit was never right.

It took some time and sixth overall picks in consecutive drafts in Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba (not to mention a second-rounder in Wesley Iwundu who has contributed), but slowly and quietly, things started to change. The wheels were put in motion in 2018, but 2019 was when we saw it all come together.

The fans had something to cheer about for the first time in more than a Presidential term, and some of the excitement returned to a franchise that, although relatively young compared to others, has had a number of moments in the spotlight.

They’re not back there yet, but seeing them actually going in the right direction was almost as fun. Here is what made 2019 so special down in Orlando.