The Cole Anthony Experience

A common topic of conversations and outreach with Professional Athletes is the importance of having good communication skills. This is a key element as they are often asked to speak in many situations be it on the court, at the microphone for a press conference, in front of large audiences at community outreach events, or being the lead voice in marketing a product or fulfilling an endorsement.  I believe that the ability to effectively communicate will help them in many areas on and off the court and more importantly in life.  

A player who has already mastered this element is Orlando Magic Rookie Cole Anthony. 

Literally 5 minutes after hitting the winning shot to propel the Orlando Magic to a 112-111 victory over the visiting Memphis Grizzlies, he lined up for the post-Game interview from the court.

I present to you, The Cole Anthony Experience:

“I do this man, I do this.  I do this.  I was bread for this, I am not the type…”

[Expletive – quick dash to the right – returns to the interview for flex #2.  Please note the professionalism of longtime Magic Communications Director George Galante with the smooth hand off returning the headset that was dropped at the moment of water impact.  George is very calm under pressure.]

“I’m scared to walk into the locker room…"

[Cole now returns to the interview, regaining focus, letting it rip.]

"I do this, I live for these ends of moments in these games. It’s crunch time, what I said 2 games ago – that’s my time – I want to get that assurance from my Team – so I just had to go get it done and shout out to everybody on the Magic, we came and we fought today.  Down 15 coming in at halftime – man dudes did not give up."

[Grizzlies 60, Magic 46 at the half.]

Love this Team, love this City – LETS GO!!

[This is fact. The Orlando Magic and the City of Orlando are great places for NBA Players.]

Yeah – yeah – YEAAAAAAAHHH.

[ Yes, my man Bryce Council is already working on the t-shirt and trademark.]

Come on.  Yeah.

[Emphasis.]

We had a few plays – we had a play drawn up before that if the ball had come to us when they were reviewing that. – I was honestly saying in my head like, I just really want an ISO*.

 [*In basketball the term ISO means isolation.]

Not going to lie to you, I wanted an ISO.

 [Video footage proves, Cole did in fact want an ISO.]

I knew if I got someone on an island, they were not going to be safe.

That’s for real that I knew what was happening.

[I was watching the game from 3,000 miles away and I too knew what was happening.]

But that was the play we drew up – came off that - seeing I had Kyle Anderson on me – I was like ‘yeah it’s game time’ – trying to get this money.

When Mo first got here, I was like ‘WHO – IS – THIS?’.

[ Victor Moritz "Moe" Wagner is a German professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association. He played for the University of Michigan from 2015 through his junior season for the 2017–18 Wolverines team.

Now, I’m telling everyone I love this dude.  I love this dude. Happy he’s here.  Shout out to Jeff, John.  Yeah.  He came ready to play today.  Hit some really big shots and if it wasn’t for him, we would not be in this game.

[ NBA NEWS 03/25/21: The Denver Nuggets made another aggressive move at the trade deadline by acquiring forward Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic. In exchange, the Magic receive veteran shooting guard Gary Harris, rookie R.J. Hampton and a first-round draft pick.]

Thanks Denver, thanks Denver – appreciate ya’ll man – thanks Denver.

[Preparing to wrap up interview with pleasantries.]

Appreciate ya'll man, ya'll have a good one.

[Dante Marchitelli (the Interviewer) and the entire FOX Sports Florida crew are a very cool group!]

Stay blessed.

A game winning shot, an epic interview, emotions and personality on full display. Cole defined living in the moment - staying present - and keeping it real. These are all important elements of the NBA life and being able to master these early in ones career will make the experience much greater.

In the words of #50 - "Yeah – yeah – YEAAAAAAAHHH."