Magic to Retire Shaquille O'Neal's #32 Jersey on 2/13/24

[pepe1991]

Wasn't politic of this that only ones who win a title will be retired?

Shaq deserves it, he is one of best players to ever play a game, was one of best rookies ever to play in nba, was one of few allstars as rookies, lead team to first finals ever , so it's not that he doesn't deserve it.

[Skybox]

I disagree with this..

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Same. He was here 4 years and didn't win a title. We shouldn't retire numbers just for the sake of retiring numbers[/quote]

I really don't mind Shaq's number getting hung up (it lifts the Org more than him), but I hope this doesn't turn into a flurry of Jameer, Penny, Nick, TMac, Dwight, Armstrong, Bo Outlaw etc...for the sake of promotional events...Think BOS. Think big-time legendary meaning to this honor. Conduct your org like you're big-time...don't rush to create a history that isn't there (yet)

And, most of all, get rid of that corny "The Fans" crap

...and while I'm ranting - Stop playing the Gd**m music while they're playing

[Flannerz]

I know he put the team on the map and it one of the greats of the game but he was here for four years and didn't win a title. It's not like he spent all his career here and set records that are unlikely to be broken.

[UCFJayBird]

This is just desperation to have a jersey in the rafters after 35 years of not winning a championship. Which sucks, but it's not a good enough reason to retire a jersey. It feels like we're retiring his jersey for what he did after he left, not what he did while he was here (which was 1/5th of his career). Or just because he was a cultural phenomenon and our first superstar. I get it, he made the Magic a global team and got us tons of global fans, he put is in contention years before we thought was possible, but then he immediately left (regardless of why and who is to blame) and won elsewhere.

4 years. Zero championships, one finals appearance, zero finals games won. Rookie of the year, 4x all star. 1x all nba second team, 2x all nba third team, 1x scoring champ. 0 MVPs.

Does this get retired by any other team?

[OrlMagic05]

Shaq put the Magic on the map. If it wasnt for him this team could have very well been gone to another city like the Vancouver Grizzlies

[Knightro]

Looking PURELY at Shaq's four year Magic career, he *probably* doesn't deserve to have his jersey retired by Orlando.

But he's one of the greatest and most recognizable players in NBA history and he turned the Magic from a total also ran expansion franchise that was floundering into a legitimate entity.

No issue retiring his number. It's not his fault the Magic botched his free agency.

[JoshuaPotter]

Disagree. I will never question his accomplishments.

By this logic we should retire Dwights jersey post haste. Possibly T-Mac.

So no. Saying no, sucks from an identity perspective. Family has been a fan since day one so I am not wanting to make new rules as I go especially for someone who played here for relatively speaking a brief amount of time.

The irony being I will not stop being a fan if this happens. I just admit, this shouldn't happen.

[Max Power]

If there was ever going to be a retired jersey here, it was Shaquille O’Neal’s. Still the best player in franchise history, a HOF inductee, and a guy who’s mended fences with the team a few years back. Shaq wins this because he’s also a high character guy, which is why I think Dwight Howard will ultimately be shunned, plus his exit was actually uglier than O’Neals.

As for other players, I think Tracy and Penny will eventually receive the same honor. Both have made amends with the franchise as well I recent years.

[davey_wavy]

Shaquille in Orlando was and is ICONIC Shaq.

If you saw someone walk towards you in a Magic #32 jersey, you wouldn't think twice as to what last name is on the back (there's been other #32s since Shaq)

Retiring the Jersey makes sense in a lot of ways. Some of you should get off your high horse

[KokoKaizer]

I would love that they retire Darrell Armstrong too !

[Knightro]

I would not retire McGrady or Nick Anderson or Darrell Armstrong or even Penny.

[eyriq]

I'd retire era defining franchise players.

Shaq
Tracey
Dwight

Could be talked into era defining secondary stars like Penny, or Lewis. I think you have to factor in team success along with personal success.

My longest list would then be

Shaq
Tracey
Dwight
Penny
Lewis

[UCFJayBird]

Shaquille in Orlando was and is ICONIC Shaq.

If you saw someone walk towards you in a Magic #32 jersey, you wouldn't think twice as to what last name is on the back (there's been other #32s since Shaq)

Retiring the Jersey makes sense in a lot of ways. Some of you should get off your high horse

We just have higher standards for what a jersey retirement is supposed to mean. It's the highest honor a team can give a player, and we're giving it to a guy who was here 4 years out of his 20 year career, didn't win an MVP, didn't win a championship (let alone a game in the Finals), didn't make All-NBA 1st team, etc. But he did go on to do all of those things in other team's jerseys.

We're retiring his jersey because of his persona and his notoriety, not because of anything he did on the court as a Magic player.

I'll die on this hill, lol. But once it's in the rafters it'll be there forever, so i'll get over it and just shake my head every time I see it. *shrugs* There are more important things in the world, but I've yet to hear an actually compelling argument on why Shaq deserves this. The best we seem to be able to come up with is that he was popular, and he was our first superstar and made us contenders (but not winners) earlier than most expansion teams are able to, which IMO isn't good enough.

It's honestly amazing how fan feelings have changed ever since that 30 for 30 came out and ever since Shaq retired. Ironically I used to be one of his biggest defenders and used to tell people to let it go. Now i'm the one arguing we've gone too far in the other direction.

[fateis007]

I would rather retire someone like Hedo, then shaq

dude bounced on us as a champsionship caliber team and didn't even get sign a contract. weird

besides a play off run, he didnt do **** here. never understood why anyone respected shaq for treating us like a small pond.

was he an amazing player? ofcourse. but loyalty should be a requirment for that honor

[Audi]

I would rather retire someone like Hedo, then shaq

dude bounced on us as a champsionship caliber team and didn't even get sign a contract. weird

besides a play off run, he didnt do **** here. never understood why anyone respected shaq for treating us like a small pond.

was he an amazing player? ofcourse. but loyalty should be a requirment for that honor

It was management's blunder. They hesitated on paying him superstar money while LA recognized his stardom and told him they would gladly pony up.

[fateis007]

I would rather retire someone like Hedo, then shaq

dude bounced on us as a champsionship caliber team and didn't even get sign a contract. weird

besides a play off run, he didnt do **** here. never understood why anyone respected shaq for treating us like a small pond.

was he an amazing player? ofcourse. but loyalty should be a requirment for that honor

It was management's blunder. They hesitated on paying him superstar money while LA recognized his stardom and told him they would gladly pony up.

didnt he want like 80% of our salary cap? either way, i am not picking sides. we obviously should have paid him whatever. but things didnt go that way, so why retire him and make him our first? idk, seems odd. the relationship between the city and the fans was pretty much botched. not a single fan in the city was happy with the outcome or with shaq, it was pretty devistating actually.

atleast he just left tho and it wasn't like dwight.

[Audi]

I would rather retire someone like Hedo, then shaq

dude bounced on us as a champsionship caliber team and didn't even get sign a contract. weird

besides a play off run, he didnt do **** here. never understood why anyone respected shaq for treating us like a small pond.

was he an amazing player? ofcourse. but loyalty should be a requirment for that honor

It was management's blunder. They hesitated on paying him superstar money while LA recognized his stardom and told him they would gladly pony up.

didnt he want like 80% of our salary cap? either way, i am not picking sides. we obviously should have paid him whatever. but things didnt go that way, so why retire him and make him our first? idk, seems odd. the relationship between the city and the fans was pretty much botched. not a single fan in the city was happy with the outcome.

Well it was more the fact that the amount he wanted was just unheard of and only (iirc) Alonzo Mourning had just recently been signed to a similar amount. The issue was that at the time there was a league rule in place allowing a very short period of time where restricted free agents could actually sign contracts and their current teams couldn't match. By the time LA offered what he wanted (plus all the lights and glam of LA), management had nothing they could do about it. But it could've been a different story if we had just said 'you are worth it - let's win a championship' but instead they were trying to lowball him (in his eyes) and the local paper putting out polls that 80%+ of Orlandoans saying they didn't think he was worth that money...young guy didn't have the patience for it. Part of this is due to Penny too though - management had another star to think about. But yea... sucks but it really was just a different era, I was only a kid then so I didn't understand the money aspect - I just remember feeling so betrayed and seeing signs like "hit the road shaq" on the highways and stuff. haha

[Skybox]

It was management's blunder. They hesitated on paying him superstar money while LA recognized his stardom and told him they would gladly pony up.

didnt he want like 80% of our salary cap? either way, i am not picking sides. we obviously should have paid him whatever. but things didnt go that way, so why retire him and make him our first? idk, seems odd. the relationship between the city and the fans was pretty much botched. not a single fan in the city was happy with the outcome.

Well it was more the fact that the amount he wanted was just unheard of and only (iirc) Alonzo Mourning had just recently been signed to a similar amount. The issue was that at the time there was a league rule in place allowing a very short period of time where restricted free agents could actually sign contracts and their current teams couldn't match. By the time LA offered what he wanted (plus all the lights and glam of LA), management had nothing they could do about it. But it could've been a different story if we had just said 'you are worth it - let's win a championship' but instead they were trying to lowball him (in his eyes) and the local paper putting out polls that 80%+ of Orlandoans saying they didn't think he was worth that money...young guy didn't have the patience for it. Part of this is due to Penny too though - management had another star to think about. But yea... sucks but it really was just a different era, I was only a kid then so I didn't understand the money aspect - I just remember feeling so betrayed and seeing signs like "hit the road shaq" on the highways and stuff. haha

This town just wasn't ready for a big-time NBA star at the time. That poll was moronic - if you limited it to people that cared or knew anything about the NBA, it would have been "of course...are you kidding?". I also think Devos wasn't ready for the big time yet - Shaq hit ORL's little team like a lightning bolt and they didn't know what they were doing.

Can you imagine a team...any team...today... letting that version of Shaq go- over money?

[eyriq]

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[Optimus_Steel]

I got over Shaq hate years ago. Time to move and embrace our past that we’ve been reluctant to embrace. Reality is that Shaq was a cultural icon as Magic player making this team an A list rock band. Many people on this board are Magic fans to this day because of Shaq. Retire Penny as well (prob have to do Tmac too because of the number but whatever).