ORLANDO — The Orlando Magic on Thursday introduced Sean Sweeney to be the franchise’s next head coach.

Sweeney, who previously served as the associate head coach on Mitch Johnson’s staff with the San Antonio Spurs, was working alongside Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman in the hiring process while simultaneously helping San Antonio to the NBA Finals. On May 29, it was reported by ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania that Orlando was finalizing a deal with Sweeney, and he was officially named to his position on June 1.

The Spurs fell to the New York Knicks in Game 5 of the finals on June 13. Five days later, Sweeney was in the AdventHealth Training Center for his introductory press conference. 

For Weltman, the process of hiring Sweeney while he was committed to San Antonio’s postseason run presented challenges, but it was worth it.

"Sean is very highly thought of around the league," Weltman said. "I think it might have been Mike [Bianchi], somewhere out there, who asked me, 'How do you interview an assistant coach, or how do you know if an assistant coach is going to do it? And I said, if you have a way to do it, let me know, because I don't know.

"But I know one thing," Weltman added. "You do a lot of homework. You talk to a lot of people. You talk to people who are everywhere where this guy's been, and those who have touched him in any way, whether it's players and management, coaches, whatever. And the deeper we got into our background research with Sean, the more we knew we had to meet with this guy, and the more interested we became. 

"When we finally did get in front of him," Weltman continued. "It was a long day, and he had a lot going on. During the playoffs, and not only was he able to kind of compartmentalize his work with the Spurs, and present well to us, but he actually really knocked our socks off."

Sweeney comes to Orlando as a rookie head coach, but his previous experience has prepared him for the position. 

"For me, coaching is not a profession, it's a vocation," Sweeney said. "And I'm going to work to my highest level to do the best job I can for this franchise and for the guys like this that are sitting here in front of us. It's been 21 years of preparation and it's brought me here, and I'm ready for it."

Under Sweeney, the Magic will be constructed upon an important intangible.

"A couple things about our team," he said. "Our team is going to be built on our values. We're going to value character, we're going to value competition, we're going to value connection and we are going to value the game."

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