12-year-old Magic billboard laid bare by Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma revealed a 2005 billboard welcoming back Brian Hill to the Orlando Magic. That tenure was not as successful. H/T @joshlazar pic.twitter.com/zoNCOwjqxe
— Matt Brodsky (@MattSBrodsky) September 14, 2017
Billboards are like modern palimpsests; their buried ads can tell forgotten stories about the places where they reside - and, on occasion, the NBA teams therein.
This billboard in Orlando, for example, had its more recent layers stripped away by Hurricane Irma, revealing a long-papered-over piece of Magic history that likely didn't expect to see the light of day again: A message from a local restaurant to then-coach Brian Hill in 2005, upon his return to the team's sidelines after a nearly nine-year hiatus.
Hill had coached the Penny-and-Shaq-era Magic to great heights in the mid-'90s, including the franchise's first Finals berth in 1995. His second tenure didn't go quite as well, and lasted just two seasons. Though he served as an NBA assistant for five subsequent years, the now-retired Hill never had another head coaching job.