On Sunday morning, the city of Orlando imploded the old Amway Arena, a landmark building for anyone who grew up in Central Florida. As its historic walls crumbled, more than two decades of memories came tumbling to the ground.
The building off of Amelia Street in downtown Orlando opened its doors Jan. 29, 1989 during an open house that featured Magic cheerleaders and Harlem Globetrotter Curly Neal.
Five nights later, it hosted a Bill Cosby stand-up show. In the two decades since, it has hosted some of the biggest concerts and sporting events to ever come through Orlando.
But for most people, the Amway Arena was synonymous with the Orlando Magic, who called the arena their home from their inception in 1989 until their move to the new Amway Center before the start of the 2010-11 season.
The building has been known by many names over the past 23 years — the Orlando Arena, the TD Waterhouse Centre, the Amway Arena — but to those who know it best, it has always been and will always be the O-Rena.
Here’s a look back at some of the O-Rena’s most memorable Magic moments:
The first game: There were other games played in the O-Rena before the Magic first took the floor, including a basketball game between Rollins and the University of Central Florida, but on Oct. 13, 1989, the first Magic game in the building was truly something to behold. A 118-109 preseason win over the defending champion Detroit Pistons got a packed, basketball-starved crowd rocking and was truly the start of something special in Central Florida.
Skiles’ 30-assist game: On Dec. 30, 1990, Magic point guard Scott Skiles set an NBA record when he dished out 30 assists during Orlando's 155-116 victory over the Denver Nuggets. By the middle of the third quarter, Skiles, now the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, had broken his own team record with 18 dimes, and his pass to Jerry Reynolds midway through the fourth tied Kevin Porter’s league record of 29, which was set in 1978. With 19.6 seconds to play, Skiles assisted on a Reynolds jump shot that set a new all-time mark of 30 assists, one that might never be broken again.
1992 NBA All-Star Game: On Feb. 9, 1992, the NBA All-Star Game brought a different kind of “Magic” moment for the O-Rena, as it was the return of Magic Johnson, who, three months after his retirement because of his contraction of HIV, led the Western Conference to a 153-113 victory. Johnson scored a game-high 25 points, and the memories of his one-on-one battles with Eastern Conference stars Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas will live on forever.
Nick stole the ball: Ask any Magic fan in Orlando about the night that “Nick stole the ball,” and any one of them will recall, with great joy and vividness, the most historic steal in franchise history. It was May 7, 1995, and Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Magic and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls was under way. With 20 seconds left in the game, Chicago led 91-90. The Bulls inbounded the ball to Jordan, but rather than foul, the Magic elected to go for a steal. Jordan beat Magic guard Nick Anderson on his first steal attempt, but Anderson recovered, caught up to Jordan on his right side and poked the ball away. The ball ended up in Penny Hardaway’s hands, and Hardaway threw it ahead to Horace Grant, whose breakaway dunk gave the Magic a 92-91 lead with six seconds left. Orlando went on to win the series 4-2, sending them to the first conference finals in team history.
Magic Finals-bound: The Magic’s Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers in the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals is considered to be the loudest game in the arena's history. Orlando, which had already closed the old Boston Garden and knocked off Jordan’s Bulls on their playoff run, had played a hard-fought series with Reggie Miller’s Pacers, one that came down to one game on June 4, 1995, for a spot in the NBA Finals. Coming off a 27-point loss at Market Square Arena in Game 6, the Magic didn’t exactly enter the game with a head of steam, but Shaquille O’Neal scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds and Dennis Scott went 5 of 7 from 3-point range to lead Orlando to a 105-81 rout.
1995 NBA Finals: A 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Houston Rockets was hardly the perfect ending to the 1994-95 season for the Magic, but the 1995 NBA Finals, which opened with two games at the O-Rena, were still a banner moment for Magic fans all across Orlando. Perhaps the most painfully memorable moment for Orlando fans is Game 1 on June 7, when Nick Anderson missed four free throws late in the game, allowing Houston’s Kenny Smith to tie the game 110-110 on a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left in regulation. The Rockets won 120-118 in overtime, and the Magic never recovered.
3-D’s 11 3-pointers: Dennis Scott, better known to Magic fans as 3-D, set a then-NBA record when he hit 11 3-point shots in Orlando’s 119-104 win over the Atlanta Hawks on April 18, 1996. Scott, who had already hit nine 3-pointers in a game at Orlando Arena (on April 13, 1994), went 11 of 17 from behind the arc and led the Magic with 35 points. Scott’s NBA record stood until 2003, when Kobe Bryant hit 12 3-pointers in a game for the Los Angeles Lakers. (Donyell Marshall hit 12 3s for the Raptors in 2005.) But Scott’s 11-triple game will still go down as, arguably, the best shooting night in O-Rena history.
Tim’s TV toss: The arena’s parquet floor was shown on TV countless times, but only once was a TV the main attraction on the Amway Arena floor. Denver guard Tim Hardaway was ejected during the fourth quarter of the Magic’s 124-102 win over the Nuggets on March 15, 2002, after receiving his second technical foul, but he wasn’t going to go quietly. As he passed by a broadcast table, a frustrated Hardaway (who had zero points in the game) grabbed a TV monitor and tossed it into the center of the court. The monitor didn’t break, however, and Magic guard Darrell Armstrong famously grabbed the monitor, carried it back over to the broadcast table and plugged it in. Hardaway was later suspended two games and fined $10,000 by the NBA. The monitor? Hardaway and Armstrong autographed it after the game, and it was sold for charity.
Dwight over Duncan: There were countless buzzer beaters during the O-Rena era for the Orlando Magic, but none stand out quite like the game-winner fans in attendance saw on Feb. 9, 2007. The Magic were playing the San Antonio Spurs, and the game was tied 104-104 with 0.4 seconds left to play. Orlando was inbounding the ball out on the sideline near midcourt, where they executed what was, arguably, the most perfect play of Stan Van Gundy’s coaching career. Hedo Turkoglu threw the ball in toward the rim and connected with a then-21-year-old Howard for an alley-oop dunk over Spurs center Tim Duncan. The combination of the perfect pass and the perfect slam and the fact that it won the game as the buzzer sounded made for the most unbelievable dunk most Magic fans have ever seen.
Later, LeBron: The Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Amway Arena three times during the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, but it was the final win — in Game 6 on May 30, 2009 — that is the one most remember. Howard scored 40 points on 14-of-21 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Magic cruised to a 103-90 victory, finishing off a 4-2 series win and earning the franchise’s second trip to the NBA Finals. For everything Howard did, the game was remembered just as much for what Cavs forward LeBron James didn’t do. Frustrated by his team’s lack of support over the course of the entire series, James’ effort was noticeably lacking down the stretch in Game 6, and after the buzzer sounded, a pouty James left the court without shaking hands with any of the Magic players.
NBA Finals, take two: Orlando has struggled in the franchise’s only two trips to the NBA Finals, coming up short both times. But on June 9, 2009, the Magic accomplished a franchise first by earning their first Finals victory, a 108-104 home win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3. Five Magic players scored in double figures as Orlando shot 62.5 percent from the floor. Unfortunately, that Finals also is remembered for all of the questions that the Magic were left with after it ended — What if Courtney Lee makes that alley-oop lay-up at the end of Game 2? What if Derek Fisher doesn’t hit that 3 at the end of Game 4? What if Jameer Nelson hadn’t tried to rush back from injury for the series? — but it doesn’t take away from the importance of the only Finals win in Amway Arena history.
The last game: The final game at Amway Arena was played on May 26, 2010, between the Magic and the Boston Celtics, but the Magic weren’t going to let the rival Celtics close their arena like the Magic closed the old Boston Garden in 1995. With their backs against the wall, trailing 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Magic came out firing on all cylinders. Nelson led the way with 24 points, and the Magic hit 13 of their 25 3-point attempts in a 113-92 win that sent the series back to Boston. Orlando was unable force a Game 7 back in Orlando, falling to the Celtics 96-84 in Game 6, but they could rest assured knowing that the Amway Arena was closed in style.
