{"id":754548,"date":"2026-06-07T03:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T03:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754548\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T03:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T03:39:16","slug":"they-had-the-curse-of-the-bambino-and-we-had-the-curse-of-shaq-the-orlando-magic-believed-shaquille-oneal-cursed-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754548\/","title":{"rendered":"“They had the curse of the Bambino, and we had the curse of Shaq” – The Orlando Magic believed Shaquille O’Neal cursed them"},"content":{"rendered":"

In league history, few departures have changed a franchise’s trajectory like\u00a0Shaquille O’Neal<\/a>‘s from the Orlando Magic<\/a> in 1996. After the Magic<\/a> had struck gold almost immediately as an expansion team by getting the No. 1 pick and drafting Shaq in 1992, Orlando transformed from a young franchise into a legitimate contender within a few years.<\/p>\n

With O’Neal dominating in the paint and with the Magic’s subsequent top draft pick in Penny Hardaway emerging as one of the brightest stars in the league, the\u00a0Magic\u00a0<\/a>reached the 1995 Finals. They were eventually defeated by the Houston Rockets<\/a>, but everyone believed they were still a dynasty in the making.<\/p>\n

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However, everything unraveled as quickly as it came together. Shaq’s departure to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> became one of the most painful moments in Orlando sports history. And it wasn’t just because they lost their franchise superstar, but because everyone believed it marked the beginning of what has haunted them over the years: the curse of Shaq.<\/p>\n

The curse of the Big Aristotle<\/p>\n

It all started when the Magic reportedly low-balled Shaq in negotiations. The franchise hesitated to give the then-24-year-old the $112+ million contract he demanded after Alonzo Mourning’s record contract, which allowed the Lakers to swoop in and\u00a0sign Diesel for $120 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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What followed was the downfall of a franchise. Years of heartbreak, injuries, and stars leaving town eventually led Orlando fans to diagnose their franchise with the curse of Shaq, similar to what the Boston Red Sox in MLB had when they traded away Babe Ruth to their rivals, the New York Yankees, in 1919.<\/p>\n

“To this day, we’re still digging out of that loss. It was like the Red Sox selling off Babe Ruth,”\u00a0said former Magic executive Pat Williams. “They had the curse of the Bambino, and we had the curse of Shaq.”<\/p>\n

But unlike the Red Sox, who eventually broke the curse in 2004, the Magic have yet to break theirs with a championship. While Shaq created the dynasty he was expected to build in Magic at Los Angeles<\/a> with a new co-star in Kobe Bryant<\/a>, Hardaway and the Magic failed to replicate their success.<\/p>\n

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Injuries infamously derailed Penny’s once-promising career. But the injury bug didn’t end there. Their new star duo in 2000 of Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill never reached their potential after injuries\u00a0robbed the latter of his prime<\/a>\u00a0and Orlando’s title chances.<\/p>\n

McGrady emerged as a superstar in the years that followed, but never really reached the second round. Eventually, the Magic traded him in 2004 to kickstart their rebuild, which centered on their new No. 1 overall pick, Dwight Howard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Magic had a new Superman, who became another dominant big man on both ends and a perennial MVP candidate. Howard would take Orlando to the NBA Finals in 2009, offering hope that the franchise had finally escaped its haunted reputation.<\/p>\n

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But after losing to the same team that stole Shaq in the finals, the Magic would never fully become serious contenders, and Howard would be subjected to trade rumors in the years that followed, eventually leading, yet again, to an Orlando superstar heading to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Related: “I was real embarrassed” – Shaquille O’Neal admitted he went $80,000 into debt before playing an NBA game<\/a><\/p>\n

The curse today<\/p>\n

Despite fans believing that there was a curse that plagued them for years, the reality might be that Orlando has never really been good enough to win a title since having Shaq. There also wasn’t a single moment where it looked like they were headed for a championship before fate intervened.<\/p>\n

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Not to mention that the franchise has reached multiple conference finals, more than other, more “cursed” teams in the league. In reality, there might not be a cruise, only a haunting thought of the franchise letting go of its young superstar, in turn letting go of a prosperous future.<\/p>\n

Today, the Magic are still a good team. They boast another core duo of Paolo Banchero<\/a> and Franz Wagner<\/a>, supported by talented young players. They might have had a disappointing season after bouncing out of the playoffs in the first round, but they still have pieces to be a contender in the future.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, had Orlando just handled that summer differently, the franchise might have had a different identity. Instead of fans believing they were cursed, they might be just spoiled with rings that a Shaq and Penny duo were most certainly capable of doing. It’s a what-if disguised as a curse, and it has pained the city for decades and will continue to do so until the franchise finally wins a ring.<\/p>\n

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Related: Why Michael Jordan rejected a captain role on the iconic Dream Team: “I have too much respect for those guys”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In league history, few departures have changed a franchise’s trajectory like\u00a0Shaquille O’Neal‘s from the Orlando Magic in 1996.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,7286,1676,403,194,1536,251,150,48,6,8251,47,76,3883,402,5025,2390,65639,401],"class_list":["post-754548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando-magic","tag-basketball","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-dwight-howard","tag-franz-wagner","tag-houston-rockets","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-magic","tag-nba","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlandomagic","tag-paolo-banchero","tag-penny-hardaway","tag-shaq","tag-shaquille-o39neal","tag-the-magic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116706748848152933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754548","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=754548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}