Report: Ex-Magic GM Hennigan took photo of whiteboard

This embarrassing gaff was the last straw.

The Orlando Magic fired general manager Rob Hennigan on Wednesday - a totally understandable decision given the downtrodden state of the franchise. Hennigan's shortsighted and sloppy asset management produced zero clear-cut future stars after five seasons without the playoffs.

Hennigan's fate was already sealed, but he did suffer one last embarrassment before walking out the door, as Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical writes.

Near the end of the season, Hennigan inadvertently took a photo of the Magic’s internal plans on a white board while snapping a photo of a player signing a contract. Once that photo was posted on social media - and the fallout from the information made public began to hit the franchise - Hennigan had to suffer one more indignity on the job.

Nevertheless, the Magic had already decided to dismiss Hennigan, league sources said, and the instance had no ultimate bearing on his future.

The picture in question was snapped when the Magic signed Patricio Garino. The photo was shared (then deleted) by Garino's agent since the whiteboard in the background appeared to have tipped the Magic's offseason pursuits.

Hennigan tried to cover his tracks by saying that the photo was "not indicative" of the Magic's plans, but the damage was done.

In addition to painting the Magic franchise as incompetent and disorganized, the whiteboard also caused unnecessary awkwardness with Magic forward Aaron Gordon, who was named in a potential trade for Philadelphia 76ers forward Dario Saric.

But all this was secondary to Hennigan's shortcomings as a general manager. The Magic finished with less than 30 wins in four of his five seasons, shuffled through four coaches, and none of their prospects project to be future All-Stars. That's more embarrassing than any accidental photos.