NBA Q&A: Magic CEO Alex Martins

Courtesy of Mary Schmitt Boyer

Q: How is the Magic's rebuilding going after the trade of Dwight Howard?

A: Things are going well. We prefer to refer to it as a transition, as opposed to a rebuilding. We call it a transition because we feel like we came out of the summer with valuable assets that we were going to be able to transition into a different era, as opposed to start from scratch. We had some veteran pieces, and adding the young players and the rookies, specifically [Andrew] Nicholson and [Moe] Harkless, we felt like we weren't starting from scratch. We had been to this place before with Shaq [Shaquille O'Neal], who left as a free agent in 1996, and we did not get any assets back in return, and we pledged if we crossed that bridge again that we weren't going to handle it the same way.

Q: What has been the biggest surprise so far?

A: I guess if there was one bit of a surprise it was DeQuan Jones. He came in as an undrafted free agent, played really, really well in camp. It came down to a DeQuan Jones-Quentin Richardson decision. Ultimately, we felt like DeQuan had some great ability, some great upside, and with the opportunity to play, we felt like he could be a contributor, and he has been.

Q: You spent some time as a vice president of communications and public affairs with the Browns. Do you still follow them?

A: I follow them from afar. Phil Dawson was always one of my favorite players when I was there, and I can't believe, 13 years later, he's still one of the best kickers in the NFL, but he is. I keep in close contact with Carmen [Policy.] . . . But there's not a whole lot of folks I'm still in contact with from there.

Q: What's the biggest difference working in the NFL versus the NBA?

A: It seems simplistic, but it's the biggest difference that everything is built around, and that's the number of games. Every game is do-or-die, life or death, in the NFL. When you lost on Sunday, it was a morgue on Monday. Things started to pick up a little on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, you needed to move on. In the NBA, you get beat tonight and you've got to play tomorrow. You can't dwell on it.

Q: What's your fondest memory of Cleveland?

A: There were a lot of great ones. I would say my fondest memory was during the early days, during the building days, really living morning to night with all those guys and getting ready and built up. It was dinners out every night -- so many good ones. One of my favorite places was Lola [now Lolita].