{"id":215032,"date":"2026-04-01T20:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/215032\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:52:09","slug":"ex-magic-star-horace-grant-preaches-patience-for-orlando-banchero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/215032\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Magic star Horace Grant preaches patience for Orlando, Banchero"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Magic<\/a> acquired Desmond Bane<\/a> from the Grizzlies last summer, Horace Grant immediately saw the parallels between Bane\u2019s arrival to Orlando<\/a> and his own addition to the organization from more than three decades ago.<\/p>\n

Grant, who won three NBA<\/a> championships with the Bulls before signing with the Magic as a free agent in the summer of 1994, described Bane as a \u201cfantastic\u201d pickup for the franchise that\u2019s working to return to the playoffs for a third consecutive season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving that playoff experience, (he) brings a lot of worth to a young club like that,\u201d Grant recently told the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> in a phone interview. \u201cHe\u2019s a pretty darn good leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant played for the Magic from 1994-99 and 2001-03, and it was during his first stint when he helped the organization reach the NBA Finals for the first time in \u201995.<\/p>\n

Although he hasn\u2019t been to a game in Orlando in more than a decade, he\u2019s still a fan of the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve gotten hit by the injury bug a few times but I think they\u2019re still on the course to do something special, if not this year, maybe next year,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n

Grant is back in the public eye after he recently announced the launch of his new television series, \u201cLegends in Session with Horace Grant,\u201d which includes a 13-episode first season that\u2019s slated premiere this year. The show will air on cable TV in Chicago and will be distributed through Urban Grind TV\u2019s national cable, streaming, and international platforms, including Roku, Apple TV, and affiliated networks.<\/p>\n

When producers of the show first pitched the idea to the four-time NBA champion, Grant wasn\u2019t interested. Eventually, he was swayed into the concept and has since interviewed his friends, rivals, and teammates and coaches from his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about giving legends their flowers,\u201d Grant said. \u201cAnd just finding out things that the public don\u2019t know about their careers, how they grew up and things of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guests for the first season include Phil Jackson, Charles Oakley, Vernon Maxwell, Robert Horry, Bill Cartwright, Patrick Ewing, Kendall Gill, Toni Kukoc, and his twin brother Harvey Grant. Expanding beyond basketball, the show will also welcome former NFL star and Super Bowl champion Vernon Davis and World Series\u2013winning pitcher Jose Rijo.<\/p>\n

Grant believes his perspective will allow for in-depth conversations with his ranging list of guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just comes from my reputation when I played 17 years in the league and my character,\u201d he said. \u201cOn my show, basically, we\u2019re giving back and \u2026 there\u2019s no \u2018I gotcha,\u2019 moments or \u2018let\u2019s talk bad about this person to get more ratings.\u2019 It\u2019s about the audience getting to know my guests and their journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bane isn\u2019t the only reason Grant has a positive outlook on the future of the Magic.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also a fan of Paolo Banchero, who\u2019s averaged 25 points, 8.1 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game since the NBA All-Star break this season. Grant shared a message for the Orlando fanbase about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have to realize he\u2019s a young man,\u201d Grant said about Banchero who turned 23 last November. \u201cIn terms of posting up, shooting the 3, the big body, getting to the rim, finishing at the rim \u2026 I would tell Orlando Magic fans, be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bane, Banchero and the rest of the Magic travel to Dallas on Friday when they play four of their final six games of the regular season on the road.<\/p>\n

Grant believes Orlando isn\u2019t far from reaching the heights the franchise saw when he donned a Magic uniform in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an avid fan of the NBA, especially the teams that I played for, and watching the Magic, they\u2019re on the cusp of doing something special,\u201d Grant said. \u201cThey have a young crew and I think they just need to start really trusting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic at Mavericks<\/p>\n

When: 8:30 p.m., Friday, American Airlines Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Magic acquired Desmond Bane from the Grizzlies last summer, Horace Grant immediately saw the parallels between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-215032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}