{"id":704141,"date":"2026-04-07T22:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704141\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T22:51:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:51:24","slug":"shaquille-oneal-admits-not-knowing-who-penny-hardaway-was-during-blue-chips-filming-whos-this-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704141\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O’Neal admits not knowing who Penny Hardaway was during Blue Chips filming: “Who’s this actor?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaquille O’Neal<\/a> and Penny Hardaway<\/a> had an unbelievable stretch as Orlando Magic teammates, but their history goes way before their days in Central Florida.<\/p>\n

They met in the movie “Blue Chips,” a story about a college coach (played by Nick Nolte), illegally paying off student athletes (Shaq and Penny) to recruit them to school.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The film was shot in the second week of May 1993, over a month before the NBA draft. O’Neal just finished his Rookie of the Year campaign.<\/p>\n

On the set, he saw a tall, lanky kid with flat-topped hair who he thought could play ball. The problem was that Shaq had no idea that that dude was one of the top prospects in the upcoming draft.<\/p>\n

Shaq and Penny on the set<\/p>\n

During the ’92-’93 season, Hardaway averaged 22.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 2.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks for Memphis State. He was projected to be at least a top-four talent behind Chris Webber, Shawn Bradley and Jamal Mashburn.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

And let’s face it, Shawn was only considered at that spot because he was 7’6″. Talent-wise, it’s Penny all day. If that draft happened in the modern era, Penny might go first because of his size as a point guard, passing ability, defensive prowess, and elite scoring chops.<\/p>\n

Now, for Shaq not to know anything about the kid, six hours away from LSU, was incomprehensible. However, considering there was no social media back then, an elite prospect like Hardaway could still go under the radar.<\/p>\n

And that’s exactly what happened. The Big Diesel had to ask around who the guy was, and when he got his answer, he knew he should pull strings to team up with Hardaway in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“I don’t pay attention to competition, so I had no idea who Penny Hardaway was,. Never heard of him. Seriously. True story,” O’Neal said<\/a> on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “So, it was in my contract that they could build something like this, so I can work out\u2026 Before I start shooting, let me work out from 10 to 12, 10 to 1. So they start putting this guy on my team. 6’9″, tall and lanky kid and he was a great passer.”<\/p>\n

“Finally, I got to the guy who’s setting up the game. I was like, ‘Hey man, who’s this actor, ’cause I think he was really good enough be in the NBA. He said, ‘Yo, man. You don’t know who that is? That’s Penny Hardaway, Memphis,'” Shaq recalled.<\/p>\n

Related: “Gimme a break, you’re just a golfer” – Charles Barkley on why Tiger Woods wasn\u2019t fun to be around<\/a><\/p>\n

Shaq implored the Magic to draft Penny<\/p>\n

As great as Shaq was in his rookie year, the Magic missed the playoffs due to a tie-breaker that belonged to the Indiana Pacers. Orlando already had Scott Skiles in there, but for somebody as dominant as O’Neal, you can’t have too many passers.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

So, as the face of the franchise, Shaq pulled the “best player on the team” card and demanded that the Magic get Penny. It was not an easy choice. Experts perceived C-Webb as the “can’t miss” talent, and Orlando could end up looking like buffoons if they pass on the Michigan standout.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the day of the draft, Pat Williams and the Magic front office still held their cards close to their chest. They ended up calling Webber’s name as the top overall pick, much to O’Neal’s disgust<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, not long after, the monumental trade that Shaq wanted pushed through: Orlando acquired Penny and three first-round picks from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for C-Webb.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“I was thinking Magic and Kareem,” O’Neal said of his potential partnership with Hardaway. “A lot of people don’t know, but Penny was Kobe before Kobe. A lot of kids don’t realize that\u2026 I knew we had something special.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, injuries and a gigantic $120 million offer from the Los Angeles Lakers broke that partnership up before they could bring a title to Orlando. Still, the Shaq and Penny show had real legs, even if it came and went too quickly.<\/p>\n

Related: Shaquille O’Neal on why men shouldn’t be 100% honest with women: “You have to protect the feelings”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Apr 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway had an unbelievable stretch as Orlando Magic teammates, but their history goes way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,8411,164,126,150,48,6,47,76,3883,5025,65639,40703],"class_list":{"0":"post-704141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chris-webber","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","13":"tag-magic","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-magic","17":"tag-orlandomagic","18":"tag-penny-hardaway","19":"tag-shaquille-o39neal","20":"tag-shawn-bradley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116365878539165220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}