After an uninspiring loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA play-in tournament's No. 7 seed game for the Eastern Conference, it was very easy to write the Orlando Magic off. Shoot, it sure seemed like Magic players were writing their own team off, ready for their disappointing 45-37 season, marred by injuries and inconsistency, to end.
Orlando head coach Jamahl Mosley knew his players were likely feeling down and out. He had to do something, anything to get them to believe again ahead of a do-or-die game with the Charlotte Hornets for the No. 8 seed last weekend. Less than a week later, the Magic are up 1-0 on the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in their first-round series after a convincing Game 1 win. Depending on how things shake out, Orlando might be capable of even more.
So, what did Mosley do to try to save the Magic's season? According to ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk, he showed his players some of their top highlights from their college days to remind them that they have made big plays in big games before; that it wouldn't, in fact, be smoke and mirrors for them to make big plays in big games in this year's NBA playoffs, too.
Last Friday morning, before the Orlando Magic's biggest shootaround of the season at their team facility, head coach Jamahl Mosley showed his players a video, but not the usual film breakdown of the opponent. Instead, he played a three-minute highlight reel of some of his players' own NCAA tournament magic from back in the day.
Each player who had been in the tournament had two clips each in the video made by the team's video coordinator: Jonathan Isaac throwing down a dunk while at Florida State, Moritz Wagner hitting a 3 while being fouled for Michigan and Desmond Bane drilling a deep 3 for TCU. The highlight reel continued with Tristan da Silva at Colorado, Franz Wagner at Michigan, Wendell Carter Jr. at Duke and others.
Finally, the best highlight for last: Jalen Suggs' unforgettable buzzer-beater from 40 feet near the half-court logo to stun UCLA in the Final Four in 2021 for Gonzaga.
"Suggs for the win!" is the last thing the Magic players hear of CBS' Jim Nantz call right before the ball banks in.
That's not exactly a common motivational tactic at the professional basketball level, but it sure seems to have resonated with the Magic. If anything saved their season, it could have been this video, as a jumping-off point. Either the Magic keep their momentum going against a now similarly motivated Detroit Pistons team in Wednesday night's Game 2, or the Pistons get up off the mat. Get your popcorn ready.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Magic's Jamahl Mosley kept season alive with unique motivational plan