NBAWeird But True

Bob Vander Weide: I Wasn’t Drunk

Imagine you’re Bob Vander Weide. You’re stepping down as Orlando Magic CEO. For 16 years prior to assuming that position, you were team president. You’ve given a lot for that organization over the years, but behind the scenes, so you probably figure that when you step down, you get a going-away party or something along those lines. Maybe not even that, considering you’re staying in with the Magic “in a consulting role.” Either way, you figure you’ll be thanked for your service to the Magic, and move on.

You do not figure you’ll be in the middle of a possible-drunk-phone-call story.

Somehow, though, Vander Weide wound up there after he confirmed making a recent phone call to Howard at 1 a.m. after “a couple glasses of wine.” Reports said Howard “thought Vander Weide may have been intoxicated.” This, needless to say, would be embarrassing for Vander Weide. And that’s probably why he came out and said that no, he wasn’t actually drunk during that call. He said he had “2-3 glasses of wine over a three-hour period,” and denied the call adversely affected his relationship with Howard, or Howard’s relationship with the Magic:

“[Dwight and I] like each other; we even love each other as people. He’s always reached out to me. That phone call has not changed his feeling about this organization.”

Of course, we’ll never know if Vander Weide was actually drunk when he made the call, but if Howard does indeed leave the Magic, either via trade or free agency, it would really suck to be a potential scapegoat for that one. One thing we can be sure of, though: when Vander Weide said, “Maybe I should have waited [to make the call] until the morning,” he wasn’t kidding. Drunk or not, 1 in the morning is way past the cutoff time.*

* Some NSFW language later on in that video, so keep that in mind.

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