Let me first say that I, like virtually every other Magic fan, have nothing but respect and admiration for the legend that is David Steele and I wish nothing but the best for him. My concerns are over his health and are based on my following observations:
1- Last season, on multiple occasions, David called some of our own Magic players by the wrong name (ie, called, Paolo, Wendell or Gary Harris & vice versa) and sometimes more than once a game, and Jeff rarely corrected him.
2- After our home opener, he repeatedly misstated the Magic’s margin of victory as 20 points at least 3 separate times and no one in the entire broadcast corrected him.
3- Not correcting someone often happens out of respect when people are experiencing memory loss.
4- The Magic have already planned for Dante to step in as play-by-play announcer for a few games this year which is seemingly setting the table for an eventual transition.
These are just my own observations and I really hope I’m wrong and David continues to be our play-by-play announcer AT LEAST until we win our first championship! I only posted this to see what the Magic community thinks so I welcome everyone’s perspective.
I honestly have wondered this myself because I have noticed it too. Yes he is old and you do become forgetful however it does seem a little off. Almost like the beginnings of dementia or something. My father has dementia and he started off like that. A lot of patients I have taken care of have had similar behaviors and with some you wouldn’t even know they had it because their signs/behavior were so subtle. Hopefully that is not the case for him. I’ve been listening to David ever since I got into the magic at the age of 12 and now im 34. Hope all is well with him.