'Shaq Changes Your Life!' Says Magic Legend Dennis Scott
Shaquille O'Neal is one of the most dominant forces in sports history, and he is getting recognized by the team that drafted him by getting his number retired.
Shaq will be the first player to ever have their number retired by the Orlando Magic, and there is nobody more deserving, as he changed how the Magic played. Dennis Scott is still the big man's friend, and was his teammate for four seasons, and he talked about how much impact Shaq had on every aspect of the Magic in a recent interview.
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"He changes your life," Scott said. "He changes how we do things. He changes how we travel. All of a sudden a new plane went from a van that we had two buses. They went from a regular hotel to Ritz Carlton. It's because you're not putting Shaq in the regular bed. You're not putting Shaq in a regular plane, so that's the impact he had on this franchise in this city."
O'Neal has compared himself to Victor Wembanyama in the sense that when he was drafted, he was expected to turn around the Magic immediately. And when you look at the season prior to Shaq getting drafted to his rookie year and after, he accomplished that.
The year before he was drafted out of LSU, the Magic finished with only 21 wins, and in Shaq's rookie season, the team jumped all the way up to 41 wins. And the following season, the Magic event made the playoffs.
There is nobody more deserving of being the first number retired by the Magic than Shaq, and the ceremony will be held after the team's game tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET in the Kia Center.
