It may be a painful reminder for some, but Shaquille O’Neal deserves his place among Orlando Magic greats.
This week will bring mixed emotions for most Orlando Magic fans. The induction of Shaquille O’Neal into the franchise’s nascent Hall of Fame is bound to foster some buzz, some aggravation and perhaps even a little anger.
Those fans around long enough to take in most or all of the Magic’s 26-year history will undoubtedly remember how Shaq split town for La-La Land in the summer of 1996. While perhaps not as mismanaged as Dwight Howard’s Orlando departure, it was every bit as cutting to a fan base that was just realizing what is was like to be aligned with a winner, let alone have a NBA franchise.
Still, there is no way around the 7-foot-1, 300-plus-pound elephant in this room of Magic history.
Leave Shaquille O’Neal off any list or acknowledgement of the greatest to ever hoop it up in Orlando and you are bound to come up with a grouping that does not in any way represent the franchise’s history.
Every superstar Magic player has had left on bad terms with a bad break-up with the team, making a trip down memory lane clunky at best. Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard, Anfernee Hardaway and Tracy McGrady have all been beloved and then subsequently loathed in Orlando.
Despite the feelings that may have once existed, or perhaps currently still do, all four of those individuals will one day have a commemorative pillar on the terrace level at the Amway Center as recognition of their service to the team. They will stand as a representation of the blessing and curse it was to be a Magic fan through the organization’s first quarter century.
Some of the blame for those exits falls with the players and some with the team, but each happened. There is no going back.
Every instance stirred a lasting impact on the city’s psyche and the personality of sports fans in The City Beautiful.
Moments of great triumph and great spotlight were followed by unfortunate downfalls associated with the departure of each player. O’Neal was the first to leave that way, and so, for a long time, the wounds etched into a city by his record-breaking deal with the Los Angeles Lakers were pronounced.
This was the first breakup for the young Orlando franchise, and so it still stings many.
Now, those boos Shaq endured every time back in Orlando have turned into just a smattering, with more cheers apparent upon every return to his first NBA city. I suspect that is more representative of a rapidly growing and tourist-infused metropolis recognizing only the celebrity of The Big Aristotle, not his complicated history with the city, the team and its fans.
There is little doubt in my mind that the tried and true Magic fan will still feel uneasy about Friday’s events. Even in retirement, Shaq has passive aggressively toyed with the team and got in the head of the once beloved Howard with constant chiding.
However, O’Neal must be inducted to pave the way for the rest of the early franchise impact players to also be enshrined once tensions have cooled. O’Neal was the centerpiece of the Magic’s first Playoff roster, drove the team to its first Finals appearance and made the Magic an international brand.
Halls of Fame are physical representations of whatever they stand to recognize. They tell a story and that narrative should be a complete accounting.
The once-revered Baseball Hall of Fame has gotten in trouble by trying to gloss over the Steroid Era. A history of America’s Pastime cannot be told without names like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire.
As a result of this selective memory loss, the Hall has become more about who is not in than who gets in each year. That is a sad designation for something that was once one of the coolest and most revered things in sports.
On a smaller scale, the Magic cannot allow their museum of history to be discredited before it really even gets going. You may not like Shaq, but you have to acknowledge his place in the annals of franchise greats.
Next: Shaquille O'Neal to be inducted into Magic Hall of Fame March 27th