Nearly 20 years after Shaquille O’Neal departed from the Orlando Magic to join the Los Angeles Lakers way back in 1996, the big man was honored by the Magic and placed in the franchise’s Hall of Fame.
The media was there in the dozens and Shaq was of course the center of attention, as he usually is. It’s been quite sometime since Shaq was a part of any sort of celebration with the Magic so the obvious question had to come up.
Does he regret leaving the team?
Shaq, usually being the type to avoid such question by coyly changing the subject, actually answered this with a legit response.
Following from the Associated Press.
“Do I regret it? I never fully answer it. I regret it sometimes. Is this where I started and should have stayed? I actually wish they made it a law that whoever drafts you, you gotta stay there your whole career.”
O’Neal said the DeVos family deserves “a couple” of championships and that the Magic’s 1995 Finals team, which also featured a core of Penny Hardaway and Anderson, had a chance to get back.
“That’s why I kind of regret it, because we had a young, fabulous team,” O’Neal said. “We really did. And it’s a shame that we got torn apart. But I think about that all the time. I try not to live my life now on ‘ifs’ or ‘would’ve, should’ve,’ but do I regret leaving here in ’96, yes I do.”
Imagine if Shaq did stay a little longer, he still would’ve been the dominating force he ended up being, there’s no doubt about that. Those Magic teams featured a great mix of veterans and youth with Shaq leading the youth movement. They also had young players like Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway who could create shots whenever he wanted, as long as he was healthy and Darrell Armstrong who ended up being one of the most serviceable and consistent backup point guards in the NBA throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The veterans were sharp shooting Dennis ‘3D’ Scott, the bruising Horace Grant and always reliable Nick Anderson who were all in the primes of their careers at that time. That would’ve been a great core to have in Orlando.
The next season in the Eastern Conference was dominated by the Chicago Bulls who just happened to go 72-10. So yeah, it would’ve been tough to get through the Bulls, especially after Chicago swept them out of the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals. It was tough for any team to get through the Bulls but the talent on Orlando was there.
On the flipside, there is the fact that Shaq left and joined the Lakers. Let Jordan play out his final swan song with the Bulls and then dominated the NBA from 1999 until about 2005, winning 3 championships with the Lakers and a couple MVP trophies in the finals and the regular season.
The big fella has nothing to regret but in retrospect, Shaq couldn’t have gone wrong either way.
