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Billy D Is Proof Home Is Where The Heart Is

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 14, 2007

Updated: 10/14/2007 12:55 am

GAINESVILLE - It was already a palace, but Florida has poured an additional $1.8 million into its basketball practice facility.

Improvements include historic flourishes, beginning in the lobby, where back-to-back NCAA championship trophies sit under glass.

Another case holds championship crystal basketballs and monitors replaying highlight from the title runs. The '04s flash to life.

Practice is now underway. In the men's gym, high on a wall, are replica hunks of the three Final Four courts Florida played on, as well as the real deal - a piece of the floor the Gators won on in Atlanta last April.

The oldest artifact sits upstairs in the coach's office.

The coach.

'That would be me,' Billy Donovan said.

Gentlemen, Start Your Waffles

His Hamlet days over, Billy D, tortured no more, is back where he thinks, really thinks, he belongs. And we agree with him.

But, boy, that process.

One shining moment it wasn't.

It was surreal, disappointing, embarrassing. Donovan left people hanging, especially Orlando people. Hey, you build Magic fever around Stan Van Gundy. Before that, there was Donovan's strangely silent handling of the Kentucky situation.
Billy the Kid became Billy the Joke. He knows what's coming next. There will be fans in SEC road arenas wearing Magic jerseys or Mickey Mouse ears or waving waffles.

'Or flip-flops,' Donovan said with a smile.

'But I did what my heart finally told me.'

Donovan, 42, sat in his office and said he is as happy and energetic as ever, good thing since all the starters from championship glory are gone. He has no idea what to expect from his new crew, but he's all in.

'He's back and he loves us,' Florida junior guard Walter Hodge said.

It's hard not to return to last June. Some wonder about Donovan's integrity, credibility and professionalism after the Magic episode.

I don't.
Billy Donovan lied to only one person, himself, and he corrected it. If he's guilty of anything, it's being ... human.

'Something just didn't fit right with me,' Donovan said. 'It wasn't anything the Magic did. It wasn't my wife or family. Anything in life, when it happens, when you make a decision, we look at who to blame, what the reason was.

'Here's the reason: This is home.'

Donovan said he made the 'best decision after making the right decision.'

Huh?

'The Magic was the right decision at the time because we had won two national championships and I'd always been intrigued by the NBA.'

In a way, that explains why Donovan put off commenting on Kentucky's opening. How could he say he was a UF man forever - the only way to shut down UK rumors - when UF man had NBA on the brain?

Back to the Magic job:

'It wasn't about a check,' Donovan said. 'It was about winning. I'm an hour and 45 minutes from Gainesville, I'd inherit a playoff team with a dominant player in Dwight Howard, with money to make some moves. They'd let me hire an entire staff. I'd always thought about the NBA. And we'd accomplished two unbelievable things here. Logically, it was the right decision.

'What I couldn't get to was my heart. After I made the decision to go, there came my heart. It's unfortunate I had to get to that point to figure it out.'

But it wasn't easy to go back on what he went back on.

'What I struggled with the most is how I was brought up,' Donovan said. 'I was raised so that when you look a man in the eye and shake his hand and sign your name, you follow through. So it bothered me at the time.'

He said his father, Bill, helped him.

'My dad asked me, 'Do you think telling the Magic that you can't follow through with this is wrong?' I said 'Absolutely, it's wrong.' He asked, 'Do you think going back to Florida would be wrong, doing that to Orlando?' I said, 'Yes, it's wrong.'

'But then he asked, 'What's worse, going back to Gainesville or going to Orlando under the circumstances you're feeling, lying to yourself and lying to them, setting their franchise back, collecting money when you know your heart isn't in it. Which is worse, in your eyes?''

Donovan paused.

'And there you had it.'

He hasn't spoken to anyone with the Magic since he was let out of his five-year, $27.5 million contract. Orlando GM Otis Smith recently referred to Donovan as 'that coach from Gainesville'?

But Donovan has spoken to his friend and former assistant Anthony Grant, who appeared poised to take over for him in Gainesville.

'Anthony has told me, 'Bill, I'm so happy you went back.' The thing that has been amazing around the state is I've gotten a lot of, 'We're so glad you came back, you made the right decision.' Then again, what are they going to say to my face, know what I mean?

'For my peace, in my heart, I did not only what was right for me, but was right for the Magic, too.'

What are a few jokes?

'Oh, I'll see waffles,' Donovan said.

The Job At Hand

Last Wednesday was basketball media day. Walter Hodge spoke of carrying on tradition while a fresh batch of Billy D freshmen posed for cameras. There will be more batches. Donovan says recruiting is unaffected.

'If anything, it helps,' Donovan said. 'We lost some guys in the past because they didn't think I'd stay. Where am I going now? No Kentucky, no NBA.'

No NBA for five years, that is. But college coaches will use his flip-flop against him with recruits. Donovan shrugged. He talked about integrity.

'Does changing your mind affect all that? I mean, if I hauled off and hit a kid in practice, or cheated, I'd understand. But changing my mind? I can't believe that takes away everything you've built,' he said.

Building this Gators season might be the best thing for him. There's teaching to do, green kids to match and mesh.

'I don't know what to expect,' Donovan said. 'I don't know who can do what, who can hit free throws, who can hit shots when the lights are on. We just don't know that much.'

Except who's coaching.

It's Billy Donovan.

'I love this place,' he said.

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