After Shaquille O’Neal‘s induction, which should be the next five Magic legends to be considered for the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame?
Shaquille O’Neal was inducted as only the second player (third total member) in the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame last week, joining Nick Anderson and executive vice president Pat Williams.
It got us here at OMD thinking about who should be next to join the ranks of Magic legends, and some of it is rather easy conjecture. Others, it is a bit more difficult.
For the sake of sanity, only retired players will be considered.
It is too early to make judgments on Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard, though Van Gundy told reporters his chances with current management to be slim and none.
Howard will need the healing effects of time” much the same as O’Neal — before fans can embrace him again to place him in the Hall of Fame without intense scrutiny (see: quaking boos).
However, beyond these talents are five retired Magic legends deserving of enshrinement, two of which may be all but a given, considering the profound impact left on the franchise” and on the NBA brand.
Next: Dennis Scott
5. Dennis Scott
Dennis Scott may always be known as the best long-distance shooter in Magic history.
Simply, there was no limit to Scott’s range. NBA TV co-host Rick Kamla pointed out to Scott on-air, that he basically changed the NBA game as the first player to continually rise up for 3-point shots in transition.
Scott stopped and thought, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Equally as instrumental off the court, Dennis became good friends with Shaquille O’Neal and the duo seemed inseparable off the court. Scott was not the most dynamic athlete, but he was never as slow as billed, either.
The former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket was not on the court to outleap players, nor blind them with speed. He just could flat out shoot the rock, well enough in fact that it caused the Magic to have spent a No. 3 overall pick on a pure shooter, which is about as high as one will ever go in the draft.
Scott hit 267 three-pointers in the 1995-96 season while making 42.5 percent of attempts. In his nine-year NBA career, he hit just a hair less than 40 percent from behind the arc will knocking down 1,214 in total, good enough to help him rank 48th all-time in career makes, while also having been a durable and reliable starter, three times playing a full 82-game schedule.
Next: Scott Skiles
4. Scott Skiles
Scott Skiles was selected in the 1989 expansion draft after the Indiana Pacers let him unprotected. At the time, little was thought of the pick Skiles was not even to start, playing behind former Chicago Bulls guard Sam Vincent.
The duo would more or less split time early on, but Skiles came to show a great ability to lead a team and enhance the talents of the young talent around him. As the Magic began to assimilate more talent, it was Skiles who would help carve his career as he aided Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott at becoming professionals.
Skiles became a fan favorite for his grit and court savvy, and he still holds the NBA record for most assists in a single game (30). In the 1990-91 season, the Magic made major strides over the inaugural season, improving from 18 to 31 wins. He even won Most Improved Player in the league that second year.
Skiles was instrumental behind that improvement, as he tallied 17 points and eight assists per game, while knocking down two threes a game at a 41 percent clip. In Shaquille O’Neal’s rookie season, it was still Skiles who led the team. He took advantage of having a dominant teammate to average 9.4 assists per game while scoring more than 15 points per game.
Skiles eventually came to be replaced by the nascent career of point guard Penny Hardaway, but the former Michigan State Spartan is arguably still the second greatest playmaker in Magic history. Some have even speculated he would make a solid hire in searching for the team’s next head coach.
But that is a discussion for another day. As a player, Skiles was a true Magic legend.
Next: Darrell Armstrong
Darrell Armstrong encompassed an era of Orlando Magic basketball known as the “Heart & Hustle” teams, coached by a young Doc Rivers.
Armstrong was a holdover from the Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway era. He came to occupy a much larger role as the team hit a tough transition era, coached by Doc Rivers. Armstrong is the only player in NBA history to win both the Sixth Man of the Year and the Most Improved Award in the same season (1999), and he became emblematic of what the Magic wanted to sell to the fans: effort.
Darrell was known for never letting off the accelerator and did his best to stay fully charged, even chugging coffee and eating chocolate at halftime of Magic games. It seemed to work.
Armstrong did not have the most talent, nor was he the best athlete on the court. But his relentless pursuit of loose balls, solid shooting and, most of all, his great leadership proved his value went far beyond the 9.2 points and four assists per game he averaged over his 13-year NBA career.
Armstrong was a part of five playoff Magic teams and helped keep the team relevant throughout a period it easily could have fallen off the radar of casual Magic fans.
Past his relevant years with the Magic in the 2003 season, Darrell would play the better part of four more seasons until age 39. It was hard to keep him off the court, the entire time.
His spirited efforts and hustle are enough to warrant his selection into the hall.
Next: Tracy McGrady
Tracy McGrady is one of the best pure scorers in the past 26 years of NBA basketball, never mind just the Orlando Magic franchise.
That is a very bold statement, and to fully go in to providing the substantiating proof would require a lot more than just a slide in this presentation to make the compelling case that it is.
Even with that disclaimer, it is difficult to let the eye test say anything otherwise. Much like Kevin Durant in today’s NBA, defenders were very exposed every time he caught the ball anywhere 26-feet and inwards.
T-Mac had the range and elevation to ensure he was seldom blocked, all the while hitting tougher and tougher shots” many of which appeared to have no chance of coming out of his hands clean. But they did. And quite often those same shots which appeared to be such horrible selections consistently found the bottom of the net.
The Magic signed both McGrady and Grant Hill in the summer of 2000, but it was not the higher prized of those signings who would go on to become the irrepressible scorer and franchise-defining talent.
Instead, it was T-Mac who led the league in scoring in back-to-back seasons” averaging more than 32 points per game in the 2003 season. He was later dealt to the Houston Rockets after having endured one of the bleakest seasons in Magic history (21 wins in 2004).
McGrady would eventually begin a steady decline while in Houston, putting a damper on an otherwise outstanding NBA career.
While McGrady may not be remembered as an all-time great in NBA history, his precipice reached higher than perhaps any other Magic player in history, for so however brief that may have been.
Next: Anfernee Hardaway
Penny Hardaway was the guy Orlando Magic general manager Pat Williams wanted in the 1993 NBA Draft, and he made the crafty maneuver to cash in fully on having landed the No. 1 pick that season.
One year after having added Shaquille O’Neal to the fold, Williams (correctly) felt it would be best to pair a dynamic guard alongside Shaq rather than the consensus No. 1 pick, power forward Chris Webber.
Trading down for the rights to the No. 3 overall pick that draft landed the Magic Anfernee “œPenny” Hardaway, a player whose talents were assessed to be on a legendary level.
It was not a misappropriation. Hardaway was as popular as he was gifted, making the All-NBA first team in both 1995 and 1996, before Shaq bolted following the 1996 campaign.
Hardaway would make five All-Star appearances, and the former AP All-American may end up being one of the most talented basketball players not to end up in the Hall of Fame. The case against Penny is the same as McGrady: too short-lived a prime.
Before Penny’s body betrayed him, there was a player who in his third season had averaged 23 points, six assists, four rebounds, and a guy whose vast impact exceeded his already gaudy stats and decorated career.
Hardaway eventually wore out his welcome in Orlando and was flipped for Pat Garrity, Danny Manning and a pair of future first-round picks. In terms of how high Penny had climbed, it was quite anti-climatic to trade his talents for a couple role players and draft picks.
Even so, Hardaway will be best remembered for his exertion during the 1997 playoffs when he averaged 35 points per game over the final four games of what became a 3-2 first round bounce to instate rival Miami Heat. In the final three games of the series, Hardaway sat just two minutes of game time, while scoring back-to-back 40-plus point games in games 3 & 4 at the O-Rena to stave off elimination.
It was the sharpest impression Hardaway had made on the NBA and he did it without his accomplice Shaquille O’Neal who was off on his way to winning multiple titles in Los Angeles for the Lakers.
While Hardaway may not have been enough to keep the Magic contending without O’Neal, he was enough to keep the team very formidable and to keep fans filing into the Orlando Arena.
Beyond that, every kid during his “Lil’ Penny” years wanted the shiny Nikes to emulate the gifted guard.
While it may have been O’Neal who shook the foundations of the NBA harder, it was Penny who put the brilliant caps on those seasons and who helped the franchise fight to stay relevant rather than bolt following Shaq’s having done so.
And he should receive the next invite into the Magic’s Hall of Fame.
Next: Complete coverage of Shaquille O'Neal's Hall of Fame induction