Bianchi: Nearly 20 years later, it’s time for Magic and Billy Donovan to run it back!

(RED HUBER, ORLANDO SENTINEL/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

This is how it should end.

This is how it’s supposed to end.

Billy Donovan back in Orlando — not as a punchline, not as a “what if,” but as the perfect full-circle moment nearly two decades in the making. A chance to right one of the strangest detours in modern basketball history and, in the process, possibly deliver something the Orlando Magic franchise has never had:

A championship.

Nineteen years ago, Donovan and the Magic were together for roughly 48 surreal hours. He took the job, held the news conference, smiled for the cameras and talked about the challenge ahead. And then he woke up the next morning with a change of heart that sent shockwaves through both the NBA and college basketball.

What followed wasn’t just awkward; it was chaos. The Magic were scrambling, stunned that the coach they had just introduced to the world suddenly wanted out. Team executives worked the phones, owner Rich DeVos personally reached out, and lawyers got involved as Donovan maneuvered to escape a freshly signed five-year, $27.5 million contract.

Meanwhile, up in Gainesville, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley was already in motion — literally. He had flown to Virginia presumably to hire Virginia Commonwealth head coach Anthony Grant, a longtime Donovan assistant at UF, as the Gators’ new head coach. Foley was sitting on an airport tarmac preparing to reshape the future of UF’s program, but never even got off the plane after he received a call from Donovan, who told Foley that he had changed his mind. Suddenly, it was wheels-up in Virginia and wheels-down in Gainesville.

Just like that, one of the most stunning hires in Orlando Magic history turned into one of the most bizarre reversals the sport has ever seen. And somehow, everybody moved on. The Magic hired Stan Van Gundy, who would go on to become the franchise’s greatest coach while building a contender around a young Dwight Howard, leading the team to six consecutive playoff appearances and an NBA Finals.

Donovan, as part of reneging on his Magic contract, agreed not to pursue another NBA coaching job for at least five years and returned to Florida, where he remained a legend and continued to cement his legacy as the greatest college basketball in state history. The story became a footnote — a curiosity — but it never completely disappeared because it always felt unfinished.

Now, suddenly, it’s no longer a footnote.

It’s a provocative possibility.

With the Magic moving on from coach Jamahl Mosley and Donovan stepping away from a frustrating six-year stint in Chicago, the potential of a reunion isn’t just real; it’s compelling in a way it never could have been before. This isn’t about revisiting the past as much as it is about rewriting it, because the circumstances are entirely different now.

Back in 2007, Donovan was leaving something he loved — a Florida program he had built into a powerhouse — for something unknown. The pull back to Gainesville was too strong, the timing was wrong, and the decision, as he later admitted, didn’t feel right. Now, there’s no divided loyalty, no unfinished business in college and no uncertainty about what the NBA demands. What there is instead is opportunity — a real one.

The Magic are no longer a franchise searching for identity. They are a young, ascending team with legitimate star power in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. They’ve already made the leap to playoff relevance. What they need now is direction and discipline — the exact traits Donovan has built his career on.

Consider the symmetry. In 1996, Donovan took over a Florida program that had flashes of promise but no sustained success. Within a decade, he turned it into the gold standard, winning back-to-back national championships and redefining what Gators basketball could be — and still is. The Magic, in their nearly 40-year existence, have followed a remarkably similar path — bursts of greatness, stretches of contention, but never the ultimate breakthrough. Shaq and Penny. Dwight and Jameer. Two Finals runs. Moments, not legacy.

Donovan has already shown he can take a program stuck in “almost” and push it into history. Now he has a chance to do it again; this time on the NBA level, and this time with a franchise that once slipped through his fingers. That’s what makes this more than just a coaching hire; it’s a genuine second chance.

It’s a second chance for Donovan to finish something he never really started, and for the Magic to embrace the coach they once couldn’t keep. More importantly, it’s a chance for both sides to turn a strange, awkward chapter into something meaningful.

Donovan’s time as head coach of the Chicago Bulls won’t define him. Six seasons of injuries, roster turnover and inconsistency led to a 226–256 record that says more about circumstance than coaching. Around the league, his reputation remains intact. He is still viewed as a teacher, a tactician and a steady presence players trust. And when it comes to legacies, the final chapter always carries weight.

Donovan’s career is already secure with college championships and Hall of Fame credentials. But the ending still matters, and there’s something undeniably compelling about the idea of him returning to the place where everything once went sideways.

There’s a poetic quality to it. The coach who once walked away returns not out of hesitation, but with clarity. The franchise that once felt jilted brings him back not out of desperation, but because the fit finally makes sense. This time, there are no second thoughts; just unfinished business; just a chance to complete a story that has been sitting unfinished for far too long.

In 2007, I wrote giddily that the Magic had somehow, someway landed “Billy Dynasty.”

It turns out, I was wrong then.

Maybe now, finally, it makes sense.

And this time, if Billy Donovan stands at that podium in Orlando, it won’t be the beginning of a story that unravels overnight.

It will be the ending of one that took nearly 20 years to get right.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen