ORLANDO – Serge Ibaka lost his mother when he was young, saw his father jailed for years as a political prisoner and witnessed his homeland in the Republic of the Congo ripped apart by war.
By comparison, the disappointment of this season with the Orlando Magic – Ibaka’s first in Central Florida after a successful seven-year run with the Oklahoma City Thunder – is miniscule.
Sure, Ibaka expected much more from this season than the 20-33 record that the Magic took with them into Sunday following a particularly unsightly loss in Atlanta on Saturday night.