<\/div>\n This informative feature was brought to our attention a few days ago when the author, Orlando Magic intern Dan Dugger, contacted us with an update on former Long Beach State basketball great Morlon Wiley. We at LBPOSTSports.com had been wondering whatever happened to Morlon ourselves, so we jumped at the chance to bring you this update on a 49er legend. Have a read, lay back and imagine Wiley running around in those black and gold short shorts again.<\/span><\/p>\n Twenty Years Later: From Backcourt to Front Office<\/span> Orlando, Fla.<\/span> – In the midst of family photographs and surrounded by basketball literature, he sits at is his desk, carefully examining his recently written to-do list. On the wall to his left hangs a dry erase board, with the “ideas of the day” inscribed upon it. <\/p>\n But most symbolically, seated above his desk in an enclosed glass case is a purposely deflated basketball. A reminder that one day, the air will run out. <\/p>\n One day, a player’s career will be over. <\/p>\n Morlon Wiley, the Orlando Magic’s Director of Player Development, uses the ball to emphasize the brevity of professional athletic careers to his players.<\/p>\n “When your playing days are over, when the phone doesn’t ring anymore, you need to have an exit plan,” said Wiley, who was the first player to sign with the Orlando franchise in 1989. “The bottom line is that this is about character building, helping these young men become pillars of their communities and examples for their families and for our society.” <\/p>\n The New Orleans, La. native possesses a passion for helping people in all walks of life. He recently spoke to a group of African-American teenagers who were visiting the Orlando Magic’s corporate office on a behind-the-scenes tour in conjunction with the National Urban League Youth Leadership Summit, encouraging them to attend college and pursue a career in professional athletics. <\/p>\n Upon exiting, Wiley handed each of the teens his business card and encouraged them to keep in contact. Briefly fascinated by his openness and generosity, most students probably weren’t aware of the wealth of wisdom contained on the 2 X 3 ½ inch business card. <\/p>\n Wiley is all about abetting all people he comes in contact with and perhaps that is why his front-office role is so fitting. He is constantly contemplating how he can further aid and develop his players. <\/p>\n Not just developing the left-handed hook or the baseline jumper, but developing them as individuals.<\/p>\n “My main thing is trying to develop young men,” stressed Wiley, who has even taken young front office professionals and interns under his wing. “You want to always give them some words of encouragement and a pat on the back. People did it for me, and I always want to give back.” <\/p>\n Wiley is also disarmingly self aware of the financial foolishness that seems so ubiquitous in professional sports. <\/p>\n “I think from a minority perspective, it would be a shame for them to be granted a lottery ticket so to speak, and when it’s all said and done, when their playing days are over, they have nothing,” Wiley said. <\/p>\n He works feverishly to make sure his players aren’t the subject of a financial tragedy and are prepared to embrace life upon retirement. <\/p>\n “Make as much as you can, save as much as you can and give away as much as you can,” is the gospel Wiley preaches to his players. “Delayed gratification is the No. 1 thing in this professional life. You don’t need 10 cars and 5 houses unless you’re a car dealer or a landlord.”<\/p>\n Wiley placed a recent ESPN.com article – about professional athletes squandering their millions – in the lockers of each of the Magic’s summer league players, along with his business card and cell phone number. <\/p>\n “Sometimes players just need a little reminder,” Wiley said.<\/p>\n More than two decades removed from his college days at Long Beach State, where he was a four-year starter on the 49ers basketball team, Wiley stresses that he is still a student. <\/p>\n “I’m constantly learning and growing,” said Wiley. “I ask a lot of former and current players how they handled situations and I pass that along to my players.”<\/p>\n One of his current players, Dwight Howard, personifies a unique opportunity for Wiley to mentor one of the league’s most popular and dominant players.<\/p>\n “I think the main thing for Dwight is balance,” said Wiley of the two-time NBA All-Star and Olympic center. “Just to make sure he leaves some things on the table, because he doesn’t need to do everything. He’s got a good support group along with a general manager in Otis Smith and Joel Glass, the vice president of communications, that are understanding.”<\/p>\n Wiley’s office sits within a bounce pass from Smith’s, and each time he passes by his former back-court mate’s door, he is reminded of the accolade that escaped him as a player, but that which he longs for as an administrator: an NBA Championship.<\/p>\n Gracing the front of Smith’s entryway is a poster of the Larry O’Brien Trophy, one of the most sought after prizes in all of professional sports. <\/p>\n But it is an accomplishment Wiley believes is within the Magic’s grasp. <\/p>\n “I think that in our current time, we have just as good of a chance to win a championship as anybody,” said Wiley. “The mission of our team is to get there.” <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
By Dan Dugger | August 6, 2008<\/span><\/p>\n