ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Jonathan Isaac is the Orlando Magic\u2019s longest-tenured player.<\/p>\n
He has been through it all since the Magic drafted him No. 6 overall in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft \u2014 all the team’s ups and downs and many injury challenges of his own.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
\u00a0Jonathan Isaac says his goal this season is to play in all 82 regular-season Magic games
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\u00a0He played in 71 games last year, the most since his second season in the NBA
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\u00a0The forward said he notices a different energy with this year’s team.<\/p>\n
Early in his career, Isaac showed flashes of what he could be, menacing opponents on defense and averaging as much as 11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game during the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n
Then he suffered a catastrophic knee injury in 2020 and missed back-to-back seasons rehabbing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. When he finally got back on the court, he got hurt again, playing in just 11 games in the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d say the biggest way is just through Christ \u2014 using my relationship with him as a basis of who I am. My identity \u2014 that’s not found in basketball but found in Him \u2014 helps me kind of skate above circumstances,\u201d Isaac said. \u201cBut at the same time, I’m human, and I’ve been through the depression. I’ve been through \u2018why is this happening\u2019 ups and downs. But I’m still here. I’m still standing. I’m grateful for Him for that and just keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July 2024, the Magic extended the contract of the 6-foot-10 forward, adding four years and $59 million to his deal that was set to expire after the 2024-25 season. He played in 71 games a season ago, the most since his second season in the league, and said his goal is to play in all 82 regular-season games this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m exquisite. I have no health holdbacks right now. I feel good,\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n
Coming into this season, he said he also senses a different energy from the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just feels great. We got a new team,” Isaac said. “We got some new, young faces, and we’re excited for every year, but this year feels more exciting than I remember.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Jonathan Isaac is the Orlando Magic\u2019s longest-tenured player. He has been through it all since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[58195,16738,64,63,2755,142812,590,44,142813,2785,85,142814,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-238688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-app-sports","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-florida-sports","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-orange-county","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-thomas-cook","20":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}