The green flag drops on the race for NBA free agents Tuesday, which happens to be the 100-year anniversary of the Tour de France.

The Tour de Orlando will begin with as many as two players showing up at the Magic's doorstep on the first day free agents can visit. The Magic need help in their plan to patiently rebuild after running out of patience waiting for Grant Hill to heal, and these are youthful players "who really want to be here," said General Manager John Gabriel.

Gabriel can't say who those free agents might be; it's a state secret. Safe to say, you won't hear about Jason Kidd, Jermaine O'Neal, Elton Brand or Gilbert Arenas touring the RDV Sports-plex or playing video games at Tracy McGrady's house.

The Magic can't even afford their dry-cleaning bills.

You won't be bumping into Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen or maybe even P.J. Brown -- unless you're taking in a movie at senior prices.

The Magic feel they are too old for their latest blueprint.

For the first time in a long time, there was no need to put a happy face on the Magic's draft, no need to dredge up its history of failed picks.

Versatile Louisville point guard Reece Gaines is everything Orlando wanted with the 15th overall pick in Thursday night's NBA draft and then some.

"I've always been a leader," Gaines said Friday at the team's RDV Sportsplex headquarters. "But at each level I've been at I had to earn the right to be a leader. You don't just walk into a room and say "I'm a leader.'

"Hopefully I'll earn the right to be a leader here."

Here is where Magic general manager John Gabriel said he wanted Gaines all along. But he was not sure Gaines would make it to No. 15.

Seattle picked twice ahead of Orlando, at No. 12 and 14, and also was in dire need of a point guard. The Magic tried to trade up, reaching as high as the Wizards' pick at No. 10. But the team did not have much to give and found no takers for what little it offered. Gabriel was in constant contact with Gaines' agent, Andy Miller, trying to work out a deal.

When the Sonics took Kansas forward Nick Collison with the 12th pick, Gabriel feared the worst.

"I thought he was gone," Gabriel said. "Andy and I talked all day, every hour, about how we could go up to get (Gaines.)"

Welcome to the NBA, Reece Gaines. Ten days from now your first game as a member of the Orlando Magic will be against none other than LeBron James.

"Yeah, they've already told me our first summer league game is against Cleveland," Gaines said as a wide smile spread across his face. "That'll be exciting, for sure. I got to meet LeBron in New York and he's a good guy. But that's why you want to be in the NBA, playing against the great players every single night. Here in Orlando I get to start at home so that'll be good."

Orlando made Gaines its first-round draft pick Thursday night, hoping that his muscular 6-foot-6, 205-pound frame will be useful against bigger opposing guards. He'll certainly be tested on July 8 when James, the high school sensation taken No. 1 overall by the Cavs, plays his first professional game in summer-league action in Orlando.

For the first time in the Orlando summer league's three-year existence, a round of games will be played at TD Waterhouse Centre and will be open to fans. The reasoning is simple. Four of the top eight players selected in Thursday's NBA Draft -- Detroit's Darko Milicic, Miami's Dwyane Wade, Milwaukee's T.J. Ford and Cleveland's James -- are scheduled to play in the league. The Magic sold 2,300 tickets at $5 on Friday and figure that crowds could top 10,000 for a relatively meaningless scrimmage.

It also will be the first look at Gaines, the 15th pick of draft, and the Magic's two second-round picks -- European power forward Zaza Pachulia and former Kentucky shooting guard Keith Bogans. Gaines, for one, can hardly wait to get started.

All the Orlando Magic draft acquistions -- Reece Gaines, Zaur "Zaza" Pachulia and Keith Bogans -- reported to the RDV Sportsplex on Friday. And they quickly discovered they were still in LeBron James' shadow -- in Orlando.

Welcome to LeBron Mania.

James, selected No. 1 by the Cleveland Cavaliers, makes his pro debut in the Magic's summer league on July 8 at TD Waterhouse Centre at 7 p.m., and seats are going fast.

The Magic said 2,300 tickets were sold in a matter of hours on Friday, the first day they went on sale to the public.

Not bad for a glorified practice among rookies, young veterans and long-shot free agents from the Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks.

Magic season-ticket holders, about 8,000 strong, are admitted free of charge. Feeling the LeBron effect, team officials now are wondering just how large the crowd might be when the King James Cavs scrimmage the Magic in the nightcap.

Three years in a row the Orlando Magic have been knocked out of the playoffs, not just because of their lack of rebounding and poor post play, but also because they were battered at the point guard position.

In 2001 it was Sam Cassell towering over Darrell Armstrong. In 2002 it was Baron Davis overpowering Troy Hudson and Armstrong. And this past spring Detroit didn't launch its comeback from a 3-1 deficit in the series until Chauncey Billups started dominating Jacque Vaughn and Armstrong.

In Thursday's NBA Draft, the Magic directly addressed the problem at the point, adding some much-needed size to a position where they have been small for so many years.

Orlando sweated out the first hour of the draft and then got a player it had targeted weeks ago, selecting 6-foot-6, 205-pound point guard Reece Gaines with the 15th pick of the first round.

"That series against Detroit changed when Chauncey Billups takes over and we just didn't have an answer for him," Magic head coach Doc Rivers said. "(Thursday night) we improved there. Big point guards can't dominate us any more."

There were two major developments at Thursday night's draft. Before picking up a point guard, the Magic announced a major four-person acquisition.

Reece Gaines, you know about. The stealth move was landing Dick, Dan, Doug and Cheri.

They are Rich DeVos' children, also known as the Next Generation. The Magic's future is a perpetual hot topic around here, and they are the future. The question was whether they wanted any part of it.

"We're in it for the long haul," Bob Vander Weide said.

He's Cheri's husband, the Magic's president and essentially the management face of the future. DeVos had a change of heart last year about selling the team. But he's 77, and his transplanted heart won't beat forever. Nobody knew whether his heirs wanted to keep the Magic.

They do, and that's a good thing. For one thing, it spares Orlando the psychodrama of a sale and all those moving ramifications. For another, the Magic could do a whole lot worse when it comes to ownership.

Grant Hill, who is recovering from his fourth surgery on left ankle, is eager to return to the Orlando Magic and resume his NBA career, said Hill's father, Calvin Hill.

"He is frustrated because all of this is out of his control," said the senior Hill, speaking before a luncheon at the Associated Press Sports Editors Convention. "Grant is the ultimate team player. He wants to play. He wants to win."

Thursday night Magic President Bob Vander Weide indicated, however, that Hill has been conversing with team officials and is on board with the decision to sit out the upcoming season.

"I'm sure Calvin was talking as a father," Vander Weide said. "Grant has been through a lot the last few years, and he wants to see him play."

LeBron James drove a Hummer while he was still in high school last season. Reece Gaines, then a senior star at Louisville, didn't even have a car.

Well, he had a car - until the season started. Then Gaines called his parents and said, "Come and get it. It's just a distraction."

Gaines didn't want to be driving anything but his team.

Impressed with how driven Gaines can be, the Orlando Magic selected the point guard with the No.. 15 pick in the NBA draft on Thursday night, filling their primary need.

The Magic landed one of several marquee point guards available and got a physical player. They hope that Gaines, at 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds, can match up defensively with opposing point guards who have tortured the Magic, especially in the playoffs.

"That helps. Obviously if you look at the first round, our series changed when Chauncey Billups took over," said Magic Coach Doc Rivers, whose club didn't hold a 3-1 series lead over the Pistons. "We've improved on that. There are few big point guards who can dominate us anymore."

The Milwaukee Bucks did not take Polish power forward Maciej Lampe in the National Basketball Association draft Thursday night.

After Lampe fell all the way out of the first round and was selected by the New York Knicks with the first pick of the second round, the Bucks grabbed another Polish star, 6-foot-10 forward Szymon Szewczyk, with the 35th overall choice.

The Bucks' choice was not a big surprise, given the impending sale of the team and salary cap issues it faces. Szewczyk played for two years in Poland before moving to Braunschweig in Germany's top division (Bundesliga I) for the 2002-'03 season.

"He's only 20 years old," Bucks general manager Ernie Grunfeld said. "He's very athletic and shoots the basketball very well. He has a real good up side."

The Magic has no idea what kind of player the team will get with the 15th pick in tonight's NBA draft. The franchise, however, knows what kind of player it does not want.

It does not want a gamble.

Or one with upside.

Or potential.

When the draft begins at 7, Orlando coach Doc Rivers and general manager John Gabriel want a player who can contribute immediately - not start, but contribute.

Orlando has many needs, a big, scoring point guard like Louisville's Reece Gaines, who averaged 17.9 points last season. But most important, the team needs someone ready for the first tipoff of the 2003-04 season, one who won't be glued to the bench for the playoffs.