How Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway Found Friendship Before Joining the Magic

The 1992 NBA Draft saw the entry of a phenomenon. An athlete who shook the NBA with his extraordinary abilities and made the league his playground. Shaquille O’Neal earned so many accolades in his 19-year NBA career and if you look back at it, you can find his achievements with the Los Angeles Lakers outshining everything else. But before he joined the Lakers and formed a deadly partnership with Kobe Bryant, the big man-made heads turn in Orlando. 

The Orlando Magic pounced on Shaq with the 1st pick of the 1992 draft. Coming into the league as a 20-year-old, O’Neal established his dominance incredibly soon. He achieved something in his first week, something no other player has been able to match. Shaq was awarded the player of the week, owing to his sublime skills.

Most importantly, he formed a fantastic partnership with Penny Hardaway who joined the Magic a year after Shaq was drafted. The pair took the league by storm with their incredible combination on the court. Shaq brilliantly complemented Hardaway by completing his accurate passes. 

The duo carried the Magic to the NBA Finals in 1995, but fell to the Houston Rockets. However, their paring can any day be looked at for their spectacular gameplay. Shaq stated his regrets about leaving Orlando to join the Lakers in 1996. He mentioned that if he had stayed at Orlando, he and Penny could have brought home the Magic’s first-ever championship.

“All I was thinking was [we were] the new Magic and the new Kareem,” Shaq told CBS Sports. “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.”

Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway were teammates way before they played for the Magic

As mentioned above, Shaq entered the league in 1992 and instantly grabbed all the attention. At the same time, he was also acting for a basketball drama film. The movie ‘Blue Chips’ might be familiar with a few as it deals with a basketball coach trying to succeed with his college team.

The film crew used professional basketball players and Shaquille O’Neal was the one to watch out for in the team. Interestingly, they also cast a young Penny Hardaway as Shaq’s teammate. The latter had no idea who Hardaway was, but recognized his talent. 

In a 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated, the Big Diesel revealed how he had no idea that Penny would end up being his teammate at Orlando. “I was playing one day [in preproduction], and I noticed he was always on my team,” Shaq said. “I finally told somebody, ‘Man, I don’t know why this dude’s an actor. He can play in the league.’ They was like, ‘He is going to play. He’s probably going top three in the draft.’”

Rightly so, Penny ended up being Top 3 in the 1993 draft. The Golden State Warriors picked him up as the third overall pick and then traded him to the Magic. The pair who acted together as basketball players became teammates in reality. As Shaq understood Penny’s game from his film-set experience, he instantly hit it off when the latter arrived at the team.