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5 greatest Orlando Magic postseason killers

The Orlando Magic make their return to the postseason this year in what promises to be the first in a long run of new Playoff moments. As the Magic return, we look back at the players who still torment Magic fans.

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Chauncey Billups is headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame after making a career torturing the Orlando Magic.
Chauncey Billups is headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame after making a career torturing the Orlando Magic. / KIRTHMON F. DOZIER, Detroit Free Press
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5 greatest Orlando Magic postseason killers

Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Rockets (1995)

There were a lot of villains for the Orlando Magic in their 1995 Finals sweep to the Houston Rockets.

Kenny Smith was the one who hit the game-tying shot after Nick Anderson's infamous missed free throws at the end of regulation in Game 1. Robert Horry hit his share of big shots in his rookie season in the NBA including against Orlando. Sam Cassell and Clyde Drexler hit big shots throughout the series.

But that 1995 series was only about one thing. It was the matchup of Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon. And after steamrolling through the league in his first three years, this was the first time O'Neal got outclassed and outplayed.

As much as everyone wants to make that series about the Magic's failures in Game 1 -- the team lost a 20-point lead before Anderson's fateful free throws -- the series was really about the veteran Olajuwon teaching O'Neal a lesson about big-time basketball.

It was, after all, Olajuwon's knuckle tip-in with less than a second left that delivered the Rockets that fateful Game 1 victory in overtime (for as much as everyone talks about the free throws at the end of regulation).

Olajuwon averaged 32.8 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per game in the series, outclassing O'Neal's 28.0 points per game and 12.0 rebounds per game. O'Neal's stats may look solid, but even O'Neal can admit how much Olajuwon worked him in that series.

He made O'Neal look like a young player, something nobody was doing at that time. Olajuwon was the standard.

The Magic had no answers for him and the 3-point shooting and spacing the Rockets created around Hakeem Olajuwon in that MVP-level season (David Robinson won the MVP in 1995 and the Rockets dispatched him with Olajuwon averaging 35.3 points per game as part of that title defense).

There were a lot of things Magic fans blame for that loss in 1995. Rarely do they mention the real culprit: Olajuwon was just tormenting O'Neal through all four games.

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