Al Harrington says winning wasn’t on the agenda in Orlando last season

Al Harrington is feeling healthy once again, and should he pass a team physical, he’ll be playing for the Wizards next season.

Harrington is a 15-year NBA veteran, and like most in his situation, he wants to play for a team that’s focused on winning instead of rebuilding, as the Orlando Magic were last season. He was part of the deal that sent Dwight Howard to Los Angeles, but managed to appear in only 10 games in Orlando thanks to a staph infection he contracted following surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

Harrington believes he was healthy enough to play more than he did last year, and said that the reason the team kept him out of the lineup was because winning wasn’t a part of the plan.

From Michael Lee of the Washington Post:

“For me, last year was just a nightmare, from start to finish,” Harrington said. “The Orlando thing with, I think they brought me there never expecting me to play, but then I got healthy and it was kind of a surprise for them. It was tough, but I understood that was the business and they had to do it for whatever there reasons was. Winning wasn’t on they agenda and that wasn’t nothing I wanted to be a part of at my age.”

Essentially, Harrington is accusing the Magic of tanking last season. And since Orlando finished with a 20-62 regular season record -- worst in the Eastern Conference, which isn’t easy to accomplish -- it’s hard to come up with evidence to dispute Harrington’s statement.

The whole tanking thing is a very fine line, because it doesn’t make sense late in the season for a team going nowhere to play a veteran on his way back from injury heavy minutes, when the young players on the roster would be better served by getting that playing time to develop for the future.

There’s no doubt that can be frustrating for a player in Harrington’s position. If all goes well, he’ll get the chance to help a Wizards team that’s trying to win now and make the playoffs as early as next season.