The Player

By Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel

If Orlando Magic forward Tobias Harris ever needs inspiration, he never has to look outside his own family.

His 90-year-old grandfather, Lt. Col. John Mulzac, is a role model.

In 1942, when the armed forces were segregated, Mulzac joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. He became one of America’s first black military pilots, a group known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

“He always told us as kids that we could do anything in this world if we put our mind to it,” Harris said, a smile on his face. “He’s been definitely an inspiration to me, and I love him to death.”

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On Wednesday night, Mulzac plans to turn on his TV in the Brooklyn, N.Y., home he shares with his wife of 67 years and watch the Magic face the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix.

Two of John and Beatrice Mulzac’s grandsons will play in the game: Harris and Suns power forward Channing Frye.

“The most important things that I do have is my wife, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren and all my family,” Mulzac told the British Broadcasting Corporation several years ago.

Mulzac doesn’t do many interviews anymore, but through one of his daughters — Tobias’ mom, Lisa Harris — he said he’s “proud” of his two grandsons in the NBA.

They’re just as proud of him.

Early in World War II, Mulzac and several other black servicemen were traveling from the north to Tuskegee, Ala., when they sat in the back of a crowded train car for a meal. When their food arrived, a conductor pulled a curtain that separated them from the white passengers.

Mulzac, who grew up in Brooklyn, wondered what was happening.

One of his friends told him they were being segregated from white people because they were south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

“I put my head down on the table and I cried,” Mulzac said when he spoke to the BBC.

But he still fought for his country.

He flew combat missions in Italy and North Africa during World War II. Later, he flew as a reservist in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

He also worked in New York City’s fire department and as a sky marshal.

“He was just a hard-working man who wanted to see his children do better than he did,” Lisa Harris said.

 

Lisa is one of John’s and Beatrice’s eight children.

She is close with her sister Karen, who is Channing’s mom.

Channing said his mom and his aunt — Tobias’ mother — have similar personalities.

“They come from a big family,” Channing said. “They’re tight-knit, and they are competitors, and I think it’s really been passed down to all of us.”

Tobias knew from an early age that he wanted to play professional basketball.

Channing, who is nine years older, set an example.

“As a kid, I used to watch all his college games at Arizona,” Tobias said. “I used to know all his stats. So I followed him. . . . It made me want to get in the NBA even more. He’s somebody I looked up to. I just always wanted to get to the NBA and be at that same level.”

When the Magic face the Suns on Wednesday night, the two first cousins might even guard each other at times.

Tobias will feel gratified that his grandfather will be able to watch the game.

“He’s very proud of me,” Tobias said. “He’s watched me ever since I was a kid. We always used to play in the city, so he got a chance to come to a lot of my games. He’s seen me grow from a little, fat, chubby kid to where I’m at now.”

By Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post

With Nelson and Afflalo out of the lineup, Harris had to take on a larger offensive role for Orlando, and he delivered. His raw point total of 31 certainly stands out, but his efficiency bears noting as well: the third-year forward shot 11-of-20 from the foor and 9-of-9 from the foul line, and he committed just one turnover.

“I just play my heart out and whatever happens happens,” Harris said. “I just give 100 percent effort for our team. Anything I can do for us to win is what I wanna do.”

“They were focusing a lot on Nik [Vučević] tonight so I saw a lot of openings, spacing wise, and I wanted to use that to my advantage.” Tobias Harris

Harris said he approached the game with an aggressive, attacking mentality. That much was evident early, as he scored eight of Orlando’s first 10 points of the game. Harris also recognized that attention center Nik Vučević drew would create scoring opportunities for him.

“They were focusing a lot on Nik tonight so I saw a lot of openings, spacing wise, and I wanted to use that to my advantage,” Harris said.

All three of Vučević’s assists on the night led to scores for Harris, each resulting from the seven-footer’s drawing Harris’ defender away from him, Harris finding open space, and then Vučević making the right pass.

Harris set his career-high in scoring by draining a pair of foul shots with 14 seconds to play. The former Volunteer felt prepared to take those shots and, as such, “wasn’t sweating” the prospect of missing them. “Before every game I try to make 10 free throws in a row,” he said, “just to get my mind going.”

Counting Sunday’s game, Harris has four performances of 20-plus points in his last six outings. He’s averaging 20.8 points on 64.2 percent True Shooting despite connecting on 25 percent of his three-pointers.

By John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com

 

When he and his Orlando Magic teammates are trying to simulate tense, game-ending situations in practice, Tobias Harris usually has a joke that elicits hearty laughter.

“I’m always the guy who says, `If you need a game-winner, throw it to me!’’’ Harris recalled with a chuckle.

But not even the ultra-confident Harris could have envisioned just how his game-winner would unfold Friday night for the surging Magic against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

All in the matter of a blurred 2.9 seconds, Victor Oladipo outfought two foes for a loose ball, passed ahead to Maurice Harkless, who somewhat shockingly flipped the ball back to a trailing Harris, who dunked as time expired. The frenetic final sequence – one that typified the kind of selfless play Orlando exhibited all night – gave the Magic a pulsating 103-102 victory that had the Amway Center crowd throbbing with raw emotion.

“It was good to get out there and back (his practice prediction) up and get the win,’’ a relieved Harris said well after the shocking victory.

By John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com – All through high school and college, Tobias Harris was playfully nicknamed “All Business’’ because of his serious-minded approach to the game of basketball. And even as a member of the Orlando Magic, teammates and coaches have referred to Harris as “an old 21 years old’’ because of his no-nonsense approach.

Now, with his Magic in the throes of an unsightly losing streak, Harris means business when he says that enough is enough and he and his teammates need to do everything in their power to get a win. If that means sacrificing personal goals for the good of the team, so be it, Harris said.

“All I want to do is win,’’ Harris said. “I’m tired of losing and it’s a bad losing streak for us, but whatever I can do help our team win _ that’s what I’m gonna do. And going into next game, that’s my approach. That’s going to be my goal to get all of the guys on this team to do whatever we can to get a win. That has to be our attitude.’’

Harris and the Magic (10-30) will hit the midpoint of their schedule Sunday night when they host the Boston Celtics (14-27). Orlando has lost 10 straight games, two of which have come in heartbreaking fashion in overtime periods. The Celtics aren’t in much better shape, having lost 10 of their last 11 games. That puts the Magic in a position where they feel like Sunday’s game is an almost must-win.

“I can’t really describe how bad we need to win,’’ Magic forward Glen “Big Baby’’ Davis said. “It’s crazy. But we’ve just got to stay positive. We have winnable games coming up and a team that we can beat, so we have to go out there and play as hard as we can.’’

Orlando just narrowly missed getting a win on Wednesday when it lost a three-overtime thriller to the Chicago Bulls. The Magic led by 15 points in the third quarter and by three points late in the first overtime, but couldn’t put away the Bulls.

On Friday, Orlando rebounded from a sluggish start and stormed to a five-point lead early in the third quarter. Facing a Charlotte Bobcats team that it had already beaten once, Orlando seemed poised to capture the win. But the Magic fell victim to a big Charlotte run in the third quarter and they never recovered in the fourth. Afterward, Harris admitted that the team had bad body language in the fourth quarter and seemed to cave under the frustration caused by Charlotte’s rally. On Saturday, Harris demanded that the Magic get tougher in those situations.

“The other team makes a run and we get discouraged, that’s in their favor. For us, it’s just about going right back at them. Take their punch and then deliver our own punch. That’s the way I look at it,’’ Harris said. “You see it all of the time where teams make runs and they settle down and get back on their feet. We have to get to that point.’’

Boston got all-star point guard Rajon Rondo back from a torn ACL on Friday night and he should see extended minutes against the Magic. He played 19 minutes in Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, scoring eight points, handing out four assists and swiping two steals.

Magic rookie Victor Oladipo, who had a career-best 35 points on Wednesday and another 11 points on Friday, said Rondo is one of the players he has admired for years and he’s looking forward to facing the do-everything point guard.

“Even when people go under (screens), he has the ability to score. That’s one thing that I still have to work on, but he’s perfected it,’’ Oladipo raved. “He has the ability to get everybody involved and he’s still aggressive too. And I love the way that he plays defense and the way he leads his team. I’ve been watching him for a while, since he was at Kentucky, and it’s going to be pretty cool to play against him.’’

Harris said on Saturday that he still has hopes that this Magic team can get back on the winning track and make some noise in the Eastern Conference. He said if the Magic simply play through the down moments and fight off the confidence issues that they can end their losing streak and even possibly string together a winning streak. Most of all, Harris hopes it begins Sunday night against the Celtics.

“We have to keep competing and keep playing hard,’’ Harris said. “We can’t get discouraged just because we lost a few games – 10 games in a row. It’s about progressing and playing together has been a big thing for us. And defending together is also important. If we do those things, we’ll gradually progress through this halfway mark in the season and we’ll get a lot better as we go along.’’

By John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com – Former Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard created a bit of a stir on Tuesday when he expressed his disappointment with the Magic for giving the No. 12 away to another player just months after he had defected to the Los Angeles Lakers.

On Wednesday, Tobias Harris – the player who now wears No. 12 for the Magic – stressed that he wears the number for all the right reasons and that he never meant any disrespect to Howard’s legacy in Orlando.

Upon getting traded to Orlando last February, Harris requested No. 12 as a way to honor former teammate Morgan Childs, who died of leukemia when Harris was a high school sophomore in New York. It was the number that Childs once wore and Harris made a promise to his father, Torrel, the day he left the funeral that he would wear the number if he ever made it to the NBA.

Harris wore No. 12 throughout high school and in college at the University of Tennessee. He couldn’t do so with the Milwaukee Bucks because No. 12 was assigned to Luc Mbaha a Moute at the time. The trade to Orlando gave Harris another shot at snagging the sentimental number – and never did he know that it would create such a controversy because of the history tied to Howard.

“I wear the number for my best friend who passed away. That’s my story and there’s really nothing else to it,’’ Harris said. “I’m not about the number or the name on the back; I’m about the name on the front and that’s the Orlando Magic.

“I wore 12 in high school and college, and to me it was something to keep me at peace and let me know that my best friend is still with me to this day,’’ Harris continued. “It’s just the number that I wear and I don’t look too much into (the controversy). I focus on us as a basketball team and my teammates and nothing else.’’

Howard, the first overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft by Orlando, wore No. 12 for eight seasons while playing for the Magic. He led Orlando to the 2009 NBA Finals and the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals. Additionally, he is the franchise’s all-time leader in points, rebounds and blocked shots, but he had an ugly divorce from the team in August of 2012 when he demanded a trade elsewhere.

“I’m still a little upset about the No. 12. I just think despite whatever happened, there were a lot of things that I did and we did as a team,’’ Howard said on Tuesday. “That number is special down there. I was a little upset about that.’’

Harris, who is still just 21 years old, averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 points over the final 27 games of last season after joining the Magic. That’s something that Howard didn’t accomplish while playing for the Lakers, and numbers that only four others (Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge, David Lee and Al Jefferson) reached last season. Harris is averaging 12 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in limited minutes this preseason.

Harris did not play Wednesday night against the Houston Rockets because of a minor ankle sprain. He said the injury was minor and he hopes to be back on the floor Friday night when the Magic host the Memphis Grizzlies.

“It’s just a little soreness and a precautionary thing (to sit out of Wednesday’s game),’’ he said. “I just need to get it back healthy and it’s nothing too crazy. I would hope it’s just a one-game thing.’’

Harris’ work ethic has become somewhat legendary around his friends and Magic teammates. He stayed in Orlando most of the summer to improve his strength and work on his skills. Following a lengthy practice with the Magic on Tuesday, Harris got in some extra work at a local gym in Houston with his personal trainer. Nicknamed “All Business,’’ Harris said he is simply focused on doing whatever possible to get himself ready for this season.

“It just shows my will power to continue to work as hard as I can,’’ Harris said. “I just want to be in the best shape that I can possibly be in so that I can play the whole season and have a healthy year.’’