Magic Ex Shaquille O'Neal: Top 10 NBA Player?
ORLANDO - It's been over 25 years since Shaquille O'Neal left the Orlando Magic, but he's often still named as the greatest player in franchise history.
After just four seasons in Orlando, O'Neal averaged 27.2 points per game to go with 12.5 rebounds.
O'Neal's dominance, which began in Orlando, helped land him at No. 9 on Nick Wright's Top 50 NBA Players list of the last 50 seasons.
O'Neal sits behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird and Hakeem Olajuwon on the list.
O'Neal was drafted by Orlando with the No. 1 pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, just three years after the Magic began playing NBA basketball.
O'Neal immediately revived the Magic and put them on the basketball map, taking the team all the way to the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference, barely missing the playoffs.
By 1995, O'Neal's third season in the league, the Magic advanced all the way to the NBA Finals, where it lost to the Houston Rockets in four games.
The next season, O'Neal and the Magic returned to the Eastern Conference Finals, but were swept by the 72-10 Chicago Bulls, who went on to win the championship that year.
Game 4 of that Conference Finals was O'Neal's last in a Magic uniform as he signed a record-breaking contract with the Los Angeles Lakers that summer. He went on to win three championships with the Lakers from 2000-02 and another ring with the Miami Heat in 2006.
