Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal looked destined to lead the Orlando Magic for years, but their partnership came to a sudden end in 1996.
Hardaway has now opened up about just how painful Shaq’s departure was, calling it the “worst day” of his life and revealing that O’Neal never personally told him he was leaving for the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Worst day of my life, I ain’t gonna lie. I knew the magnitude of that,” Hardaway said on The Draymond Green Show. “But here’s the thing that was so crazy: Shaq never told me he was leaving. All of the international media were in our interview with the entire team. We’re on a panel, and they’re asking each one of us questions. And one guy goes, ‘How does it feel not to have Shaq as a teammate?’ I’m like, ‘If that happens, then that will be devastating.’ That’s exactly what I said. They were like, ‘No, he’s about to sign a multi-year deal with the Lakers.’ I was like, ‘If that’s the case, then I wish him well.’ And then Shaq came to my room either that day or the next day, knocked on my door, and was like, ‘Bro, I’m sorry. I should have told you.’ I was done. It killed me.”
Hardaway also believes Los Angeles was perfectly positioned to convince O’Neal to leave Orlando, with then-Lakers executive Jerry West understanding Shaq’s ambitions away from basketball.
“I’mma tell you what happened. All of the entertainers in LA, Jerry West was so smart,” Hardaway added. “He knew Shaq wanted to be in movies. Shaq went there, and they did everything. They threw everything at him. He forgot my name. They were like, ‘What about Penny?’ He was like, ‘Who?’ I was happy for him, but I knew what that meant to our franchise. You can’t lose that.”
The breakup ended one of the NBA’s most promising young partnerships. Shaq and Penny had already taken Orlando to its first NBA Finals and eliminated Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls along the way.
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