After his team's 106-102 win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, Magic forward Ryan Anderson stepped out onto the Power Balance Pavilion floor to a mob of fans, waiting for a chance to see their hometown hero.
Anderson, who was born and raised in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, smiled for pictures, gave hugs, signed autographs and addressed the crowd, as 350 of his closest friends and family hung on his every word.
Hopefully Anderson enjoyed the homecoming, because Wednesday may have been the last chance he'll get to play in the familiar city that loves him.
The Kings, who have played in Sacramento since 1985, have engaged in talks about moving the franchise to Anaheim starting next season, and the team has until April 18 to decide whether they're staying or going.
Anderson said that the move would be a blow to both him personally and the Sacramento community.
"It would be really weird," Anderson said. "It would be tough for a lot of people because there still are a ton of Sacramento Kings fans. They're true fans."
Anderson grew up rooting for the Kings and often went to games at Arco Arena. He even said he had a friend who had painted a mural of former Kings stars Chris Webber and Jason Williams. Williams played for the Magic for part of this season before being waived on Jan. 26.
"That was a place that was kind of the pride of Sacramento," Anderson said. "It's such a small city, that's kind of in a sense all we had, really. Everybody loved the Kings. Everybody would try to get tickets to the Kings game. We were the loudest crowd in the NBA, and it was so fun to be a part of it."
Anderson's history of playing in Sacramento dates back to March 18, 2005, in the same building he played in Wednesday night.
On that day, Anderson, then a 16-year-old junior at Oak Ridge High School, scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds en route to a 60-44 win over national powerhouse Mater Dei 60-44 in the California Division II state championship game.
During his senior season at Oak Ridge the following year, Anderson averaged 28.9 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.9 blocks per game before heading 100 miles down Interstate 80 to Cal-Berkeley, where he would play for two enormously successful seasons for the Golden Bears.
In his freshman season at Berkeley, Anderson averaged 16.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, Anderson became a household name, leading the Pac-10 in scoring with 21.1 points per game to go with 9.9 rebounds a night.
During that second year, Anderson became the first player in Cal history to have 600 points and 300 rebounds in a season.
Since being taken 21st overall by the Nets in the 2008 NBA Draft, Anderson has returned to Sacramento three times, and all three times his team has come out on the winning end.
Anderson isn't the only Magic player with ties to Sacramento. Starting small forward Hedo Turkoglu spent his first three NBA seasons in the state capital before playing in San Antonio in 2003 and coming to Orlando in 2004.
In nine return trips to Sacramento, Turkoglu has averaged 12.8 points on 39.8 percent shooting and 34.8 percent shooting from three-point range. Wednesday night, Turkoglu had 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting including a crucial three with 40 seconds to go that gave the Magic a 105-100 lead.
For his NBA career, Anderson has averaged 10.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his hometown. Anderson has shot 57.9 percent from the field and 60 percent from three on the road against the Kings.
Wednesday night's performance was somewhat underwhelming for Anderson, who scored seven points and had three rebounds in 27 minutes. But Anderson wasn't alone in his insipid showing.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was very curt with the media after the game, visibly displeased with his team's performance, despite the come-from behind win.
"We played poorly. We didn't put much into the game," Van Gundy said, fuming. "I'm not happy, but we got a win so we'll take it and move on."
Orlando lost in embarrassing fashion to the same Kings on Feb. 23 as UCF grad Jermaine Taylor scored 21 points and Sacramento shot 52.8 percent in the 111-105 win.
Wednesday night, the Kings shot just 41 percent from the field, but the defensive improvement meant very little to Van Gundy, who lamented his team's lack of effort on the boards (they got outrebounded 51-36 and allowed 16 offensive rebounds).
"It's a team we played so great against two weeks ago, we figured we could take tonight off," Van Gundy said wryly.
The Magic trailed by four at the half and didn't make up any ground in the third quarter, but a 30-23 fourth period gave Orlando the ugly four-point win. It was the fifth straight game that Orlando trailed at halftime.
"We never give up, that's the good thing about this team," Magic point guard Jameer Nelson said. "We just have to have a better start so we wont put ourselves in a hole like we've been doing"
Nelson turned out to be Orlando's hero Wednesday, scoring a game-high 26 points, including 12 in the fourth as the Magic turned a five-point deficit into a three-point lead.
"I'm trying to get to the basket get in the paint create a shot for myself or someone on my team," Nelson said. "I'm lucky I had it going in the second half and (I'm) fortunate I made my shots."
After losing 11 straight games in Sacramento from March 1995 through January 2006, the Magic have won four of their last five at Arco Arena.
The players and coaches have changed over the years, but the one thing you can always count on when you go to Sacramento is a group of rabid fans with a deep passion for their team.
"They were our pride," Anderson said of his hometown team. "They were kind of everything to us in Sacramento.
