Every NBA team’s worst Thanksgiving road trip companion

Orlando Magic: Nikola Vucevic

This feels like a risk. If the ride is going well and he feels like his role as a passenger is respected, I bet it’d be great. We could talk about what’s changed this year for the Magic. I could ask him about Aaron Gordon’s best dunks, or I could ask if he has any plans for an All-Star Game voting campaign. If his spirits are up, I’m sure it’d be painless. Maybe even fun.

But if he gets the feeling things are being intimated that maybe there are other players out there who would serve better as a navigator, I could see some petulance coming. When Vogel tried to move him to the bench for a spell last year, we got this:

"I spoke to Frank [Vogel] about it last night, and obviously I wasn’t happy with the decision they made. I didn’t think that there was a reason for me to go to the bench."

These are the right words, but as I recall his performance didn’t really follow suit. I imagine he was putting on a show, but it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

“Nikola, what are you doing? Nikola. Seriously. What are you doing? Put your seatbelt on.”

“I’m moving back here.”

“No. Dude, come on. Your foot just hit me in the eye. You can’t just crawl into the backseat when the car is moving. What if I have to stop suddenly? What if we get rear-ended.”

“That’s not on me. If I’m not being respected in the front seat, I don’t want to be in the front seat.”