“We finally got him to take the leap of faith and he resigned his position as GM of the 76ers. “Pat told me later that there was a restlessness in his spirit and that he ‘needed a new adventure,’” he continued. If you come down here and spearhead it, we’ll go forward.
And I said, ‘Bubba, we’ve gone about as far as we can go down here. Then I called him one night in late April of 1986. “I had put everything in place with ownership, an arena and the backing of the city. “I started working in conjunction with Pat on this idea of trying to bring a basketball team to Orlando,” Hewitt said in an interview with in 2016. Becoming fast friends, Williams reached out to Hewitt when he was in Orlando a year later speaking at a local basketball clinic and it was on that drive back to the airport that Williams presented a history-altering question to Hewitt – “which location in Florida would be the best location for a potential NBA franchise – Miami, Tampa or Jacksonville?” Hewitt uttered the words that would forever change Central Florida, “Orlando is the place to be.” The idea blossomed in 1985 a year after Hewitt met former Magic Senior Vice President and co-founder Pat Williams when he heard the then-Philadelphia 76ers general manager speak at a Texas function. Hewitt’s belief in Central Florida as a destination for professional sports helped make the NBA in Orlando a reality. He was like a father to all Magic fans and we will miss him dearly.” He is truly the founding father of the Orlando Magic and for that we will be eternally grateful. “It was Jimmy’s belief, perseverance, community spirit and vision that ‘Orlando is the place to be’, which brought NBA basketball to Orlando and Central Florida. “Jimmy Hewitt is the reason the Magic and professional sports exist in Orlando,” Magic CEO Alex Martins said in a statement released by the team. According to reports, he had been suffering from advanced stages of dementia and recently contracted the coronavirus. Jimmy Hewitt – a co-founder of the Magic and Central Florida businessman, passed away at 79 years old. ORLANDO - One of the visionaries and architects of the Orlando Magic died early Sunday morning.
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