What if shaq stayed in orlando

Money which, for a year-old superstar, was more than palatable for nearly any other team in the league. Dennis Scott was another player who voiced his opinion. What the hell are you people doing? Shaq can deal with a lot. He can. He was gone. Scott was right. When we played together it was awesome. He was Kobe before Kobe. So I think if we had stayed together we definitely would have gotten one.

Maybe two. Any which ways, the decision of leaving Magic and joining Bryant at the Laker, turned out to be a great one for Shaq. The Blazers have more depth but the combination of O'Neal and Hardaway proves too much as the Magic eek by in seven. Hardaway's alley-oop lob to O'Neal late in the fourth quarter of Game 7 caps off an amazing point comeback.

A signature moment in the duo's highlight reel. Although they traded for Chris Webber to pair alongside Kobe Bryant, it hasn't been enough to get out of the West.

With the loaded free agent class of that featured Duncan, Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill, West was determined to land two of them despite only enough cap room to nab one. He somehow figured it out, signing Hill as a free agent and working out a sign-and-trade with the Toronto Raptors for McGrady. But instead of a much anticipated showdown with O'Neal and Hardaway, the Lakers instead faced the Milwaukee Bucks , who upset the Magic with Ray Allen miraculously hitting a corner 3 to win Game 7.

After Sam Cassell famously stepped over Tyronn Lue after hitting the game-clinching shot in Game 1, the Lakers rolled off four straight as Bryant won his elusive first ring. The Finals generated more hype than any championship round in decades. Not only was there the history between Shaq leaving the Lakers at the altar back in the summer of , the unofficial "best player in the league" debate raged on between fans of O'Neal and Bryant.

Not only would O'Neal himself refuse to entertain the question, he spent the better part of the year playing up Hardaway as superior to all three of the Lakers' superstar swingmen. After getting bounced the previous year by the Bucks and perhaps feeling the pressure to form their own Big 3 after watching Bryant, McGrady and Hill win the title in their first year together, the Magic signed Chris Webber as a free agent prior to the start of the year.

Webber, of course, was still fuming that the Lakers traded him away to Toronto in order to land McGrady and was so eager to win that he took less than the max with the Magic who couldn't have afforded him otherwise for the chance to team up with O'Neal and Hardaway. Despite all of that talent on the perimeter, Orlando proved to be too much inside as the Magic went on to win in six games.

Although he won the title the previous year, the now 8-time All-Star had something to prove. Passed over for All-NBA First Team each of the two previous seasons and with no Finals MVPs to his name, the year-old do-it-all combo guard blasted out of the gates with his best season to date.

With O'Neal spending the better part of the year playing his way into shape and Webber in and out of the lineup with nagging injuries, Hardaway led the team in scoring while starting all 82 games and leading the Magic to a franchise-record 66 wins. An NBA title felt all but certain, especially after the Magic got bounced by the Pistons in the second round. The Pistons shocked the world, Malone and Payton retired and the Lakers ended up trading away T-Mac after it became clear that either he or Bryant needed to leave.

Despite finishing with the six seed, the Magic were able to make it back to the Conference Finals where most expected them to once again lose to the defending champion Pistons, who knocked them out the previous year. Down two in overtime in the closing seconds of Game 5, Robert Horry - who chose the Magic over the Spurs the year prior - drained a game-winning 3 over the outstretched arms of Rasheed Wallace.

That shot gave the Magic a lead and ultimately propelled them to a sixth Finals appearance where they once more saw long-time Finals nemesis San Antonio. This time around, the now year-old brothers in arms didn't quite have enough in the tank to keep up with the year-old Duncan. Hardaway retired at season's end while O'Neal, sensing a rebuild in Orlando with an aging roster, amicably agreed to a trade to the Heat. In all, Shaq and Penny ended up winning four championships together and reached the Finals seven times in a lengthy partnership in Orlando that lasted 12 years.

With Wade leading the charge, the Heat made it to the NBA Finals as O'Neal once more dispatched the Pistons in what had become arguably as tense of a personal rivalry as the ones he shared with the Spurs and Lakers. The Heat unceremoniously dipped out in a disappointing first round series loss to the Bulls while LeBron James made his first trip to the Finals where he was in turn schooled by Duncan's Spurs.

After two seasons in retirement, Hardaway is convinced by O'Neal to join him in South Beach for one more ride. Reluctantly, he agrees, though it doesn't last long as Hardaway re-retires after 16 games. The final game that Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway played together came on the road in Utah in the same building where they won their first championship back in Too rosy? But after rolling through the weeds it's fun to zoom out and think about what actually could have changed beyond simply their time together in Orlando.