[jwplayer bn1d4NYZ]
Shaquille O’Neal helped transform the Orlando Magic from a franchise startup to a respectable team in the NBA when he was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick in 1992.
O’Neal averaged 23.4 points, 13.9 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 1.9 assists in 81 games played that season. He became the first rookie since Michael Jordan in 1985 to be named an All-Star and helped lead the Magic to a 41-41 record, an improvement of 20 games from the previous season.
With O’Neal in the fold, the Magic once again landed the No. 1 overall pick the following year. During that time, Chris Webber was considered to be the top player available but a point guard by the name of Penny Hardaway was trying to position himself to join O’Neal on the Magic.
For Hardaway, it helped that he landed a role in the “Blue Chips” movie, which also starred O’Neal and started filming that summer before the NBA Draft. Hardaway recognized the opportunity and used that summer as a way to land in Orlando.
Hardaway explained how he was eventually acquired by the Magic on the night of draft in a recent episode of the “All The Smoke” podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
What I did was, when I got to “Blue Chips” and started doing the movie, it was weird because I was having to try out for teams on the weekends, like fly out and fly back. So I’m like, ‘When I go to Orlando, I’m going to rip this [expletive] up!’ But all summer, I got an audition with Shaq so I didn’t shoot the ball, I passed that [expletive] the ball every time. I was pump-faking three’s, dropping it to him with two people on him, I was giving him the ball every time just to say, ‘Hey, dog, this is exactly what you’re going to get if you bring me to your team in Orlando.’ And that’s what happened, man.
Then getting down there, we obviously had a young squad that was very talented and went to the Finals in only our second year. The audition to get there, I knew exactly what I was doing to get his big [expletive] that ball. I knew he wanted the ball every time.
Once Hardaway landed with the Magic, the team immediately became a contender in the Eastern Conference as they eventually made it to the 1995 NBA Finals. That Magic team was infamously the last to beat Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in a playoff series en route to the Finals.
The run by the Magic in the 1990s was eventually halted with injuries and contract disputes but the story of how Hardaway wisely used a movie set to land with a specific team will forever live on.
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