Can You Believe It's Been 20 Years?

[Howard Mass]

Everyone,

You know what today is?

The 20th Anniversary of the the most devastating day in Orlando Magic history.

I still remember just about everything I did that day.

My mom came into my room and said "He's Gone".

I couldn't believe it. I waited for the local news and of course the TWA crash was the top story so I had to wait for a few minutes until they got to Shaq leaving.

They did confirm the news and went to go get the paper the either before or afterwards and people were talking about it in the Handy Way. I stood their devastated.

The Press Conference was heartbreaking seeing him hold up that Los Angeles Lakers Jersey was devastating.

I immediately threw all of the Shaq stuff out of my room. All the haters who pretended to be Magic fans because they were bandwagoners or had rich families that got good tickets had their predictions as Shaquille O'Neal had left for L.A.

It was one of the worst days of my life.

However, after that happened, I never stopped being a Magic fan and made it more of a point to keep track of salaries via my Salary and contracts book and then keep track of each team's Draft Pick situation.

Four years later, I was trying to compile that list of each team's Draft Pick Situation and found out about a site that was launching in the fall called RealGM.

After a few weeks of correspondance with a guy named Ryan Hoak, the rest was history.

[Statlanta]

Being a young fan after this event I grew up not knowing Shaq even played for the Magic. It seemed as a trivial fact that didn't hold till I grew up and saw highlights/documentaries of the old Magic. I actually cheered for prime Shaq and the 3peat Lakers(adopted them as my 2nd team no less) and my family wasn't hardcore Magic fans enough to establish hate for him. Looking back it kinda sucks hearing other fanbases crow on how we let a top 15 player ever go in his prime but hey at least we have him in the history books. Knowing this though I love he's in our lore and I think we got the most athletic version of Shaq as it appeared he ran the floor more, blocked more shots and broke more backboards here in Orlando than in any other jersey(I am also lucky to get a picture with him here).

If only our team didn't run into peak Olajuwon and of course Michael Jordan.

[Optimus_Steel]

All we had had to do is make one free throw and things go way different...


I was a lil kid and I cried when Hakeem made the tip in to end over time. Maybe cuz i knew there are only so many chances to win a title and their confidence would be shot. When Shaq left and was holding that Lakers shirt it was such a sad day. When Shaq won that first title i said they stole our title, thats them celebrating our title. Sad. Hope we get the title we deserve.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[Neato]

i feel old

[zuppafly]

I remember watching the news here in Portugal, and in the sports section there was a quick mention to Shaq joining the Lakers with that video of hime raising his lakers jersey. I remember it was like a dagger to me.
Internet access was still scarce (dsl routers and incredibly expensive) and that day I hadn't heard/read anything regarding it until that precise moment and I also remember the guy on TV talking about it as a good thing because of how big the Lakers were to the sports in the US and how Shaq meant they were going to be the best team for years to come. No mention to his years in Orlando, no mention to what he meant to the Magic.

It was like a punch in the stomach of a 15 years old me. I was the only Magic fan I knew of, none of my friends cared much about basketball and those who did were LA/Knicks/Boston fans because those were the teams we heard about their history.

I have never forgave Shaq. Never.

[p0peye]

I was in the army at the time, heard about it way later (probably somewhere in August). Shaq and Penny put Orlando on the map, more especially for European fans, myself included. However, no matter how sad Shaq made me feel for braking up that legendary tandem, I was never a big on players, nor hold grudges for long, as players tend to come an go.

[Nemesis21]

I'm still screaming F U Shaq!

[woosah]

I stopped watching ball for a while after that.

Funny we are sitting here talking about it and remembering how bad it felt. When i heard about that phone call from Jerry West to KD telling him how no one will remember OKC-Durant when he wins with the new team and people in Orlando got over it with Shaq, I rolled my eyes. Yeah, some healing has happened but no the fans will never be "over it" completely. That city got rings and we got what-ifs for the rest of our fandom.

[BadMofoPimp]

I remember screaming out loud wishing I had some type of message board outlet to express my anger to the world.

[Skin]

Everyone,

You know what today is?

The 20th Anniversary of the the most devastating day in Orlando Magic history.

I still remember just about everything I did that day.

My mom came into my room and said "He's Gone".

I couldn't believe it. I waited for the local news and of course the TWA crash was the top story so I had to wait for a few minutes until they got to Shaq leaving.

They did confirm the news and went to go get the paper the either before or afterwards and people were talking about it in the Handy Way. I stood their devastated.

The Press Conference was heartbreaking seeing him hold up that Los Angeles Lakers Jersey was devastating.

I immediately threw all of the Shaq stuff out of my room. All the haters who pretended to be Magic fans because they were bandwagoners or had rich families that got good tickets had their predictions as Shaquille O'Neal had left for L.A.

It was one of the worst days of my life.

However, after that happened, I never stopped being a Magic fan and made it more of a point to keep track of salaries via my Salary and contracts book and then keep track of each team's Draft Pick situation.

Four years later, I was trying to compile that list of each team's Draft Pick Situation and found out about a site that was launching in the fall called RealGM.

After a few weeks of correspondance with a guy named Ryan Hoak, the rest was history.

A terrible no good very bad day indeed. Have a feeling OKC fans will remember Durant's departure in the same way.

As for my first memory about RealGM, I remember sitting in the computer lab in college back in 1998... I just got finished reading the latest NBA rumors on NBAtalk.com, when I checked my Netscape email to find a message from some guy named Howard Mass who was putting together some kind of reader response Q&A article to post on RealGM.com. I can't remember all the details but I do remember seeing my name and location next to my response and thinking, "Awesome, my name is somewhere on the internet!"

...and I was scared about my identity, so it was a fake name, but real location!

Been following RealGM off and on all this time, but didn't sign up for a forum account until 2009. Prior to that I was posting on some weird O-zone forum on Delphi forums or something like that... lol. Early days nostalgia FTW!

[CZ Eddie]

Netscape email lmao

[ivDT]

I remember screaming out loud wishing I had some type of message board outlet to express my anger to the world.

in those days there was alt.sports.basketball.nba.orlando-magic. not a whole lot different from today, really. the average poster age was probably a lot higher, but the behavior was every bit as childish.

[RickB-Orlando]

My wife and I were actually in Atlanta at my in-laws for the games. Couldn't believe what I was seeing on the news.

[Blue_and_Whte]

Honestly I just took it in stride. I was upset but that kind of stuff doesn't really linger with me. I do remember the first time I went to a game after he left and thinking how bad we were going to suck but at the same time that Seikaly wasn't half bad. We made the PO's that season and I think old Rony got injured or some crap. After that it was a dumpster fire outside of Juwan and until we landed Dwight.

[BadMofoPimp]

I remember screaming out loud wishing I had some type of message board outlet to express my anger to the world.

in those days there was alt.sports.basketball.nba.orlando-magic. not a whole lot different from today, really. the average poster age was probably a lot higher, but the behavior was every bit as childish.

Back then, I barely spared a second on the internet. I was heavily involved in playing sports probably like 3-5 hours a day. I was fanatical. That, and watching the Magic.

[BadMofoPimp]

Everyone,

You know what today is?

The 20th Anniversary of the the most devastating day in Orlando Magic history.

I still remember just about everything I did that day.

My mom came into my room and said "He's Gone".

I couldn't believe it. I waited for the local news and of course the TWA crash was the top story so I had to wait for a few minutes until they got to Shaq leaving.

They did confirm the news and went to go get the paper the either before or afterwards and people were talking about it in the Handy Way. I stood their devastated.

The Press Conference was heartbreaking seeing him hold up that Los Angeles Lakers Jersey was devastating.

I immediately threw all of the Shaq stuff out of my room. All the haters who pretended to be Magic fans because they were bandwagoners or had rich families that got good tickets had their predictions as Shaquille O'Neal had left for L.A.

It was one of the worst days of my life.

However, after that happened, I never stopped being a Magic fan and made it more of a point to keep track of salaries via my Salary and contracts book and then keep track of each team's Draft Pick situation.

Four years later, I was trying to compile that list of each team's Draft Pick Situation and found out about a site that was launching in the fall called RealGM.

After a few weeks of correspondance with a guy named Ryan Hoak, the rest was history.

A terrible no good very bad day indeed. Have a feeling OKC fans will remember Durant's departure in the same way.

As for my first memory about RealGM, I remember sitting in the computer lab in college back in 1998... I just got finished reading the latest NBA rumors on NBAtalk.com, when I checked my Netscape email to find a message from some guy named Howard Mass who was putting together some kind of reader response Q&A article to post on RealGM.com. I can't remember all the details but I do remember seeing my name and location next to my response and thinking, "Awesome, my name is somewhere on the internet!"

...and I was scared about my identity, so it was a fake name, but real location!

Been following RealGM off and on all this time, but didn't sign up for a forum account until 2009. Prior to that I was posting on some weird O-zone forum on Delphi forums or something like that... lol. Early days nostalgia FTW!

If the RealGM website was not started until 2000, then where did this message post back in 1998?

[paperboymafia]

I barely remember it now, oddly enough. I think being overseas there was a larger disconnect on an emotional level of attachment to players, it also helped that the internet wasn't a thing as such. I was 11/12. Plus, Penny was my guy, not Shaq.

[Optimus_Steel]

Netscape email lmao

I remember I set up an Netscape email account because the internet was becoming all the rage but no one I knew at the time had email so I never used it lmao. I told my friends I had an email account and they looked at me in awe "wow you got an email account?" lol. I also remember when my parents got their first cell phones, they gave me one as well and I went to school with it and people were shocked too. It wasn't normal to carry a phone with you at the time, crazy thing is that it really wasn't that long ago.

Who remembers Altavista, and Lycos and all that non sense? lol

[Skin]

Everyone,

You know what today is?

The 20th Anniversary of the the most devastating day in Orlando Magic history.

I still remember just about everything I did that day.

My mom came into my room and said "He's Gone".

I couldn't believe it. I waited for the local news and of course the TWA crash was the top story so I had to wait for a few minutes until they got to Shaq leaving.

They did confirm the news and went to go get the paper the either before or afterwards and people were talking about it in the Handy Way. I stood their devastated.

The Press Conference was heartbreaking seeing him hold up that Los Angeles Lakers Jersey was devastating.

I immediately threw all of the Shaq stuff out of my room. All the haters who pretended to be Magic fans because they were bandwagoners or had rich families that got good tickets had their predictions as Shaquille O'Neal had left for L.A.

It was one of the worst days of my life.

However, after that happened, I never stopped being a Magic fan and made it more of a point to keep track of salaries via my Salary and contracts book and then keep track of each team's Draft Pick situation.

Four years later, I was trying to compile that list of each team's Draft Pick Situation and found out about a site that was launching in the fall called RealGM.

After a few weeks of correspondance with a guy named Ryan Hoak, the rest was history.

A terrible no good very bad day indeed. Have a feeling OKC fans will remember Durant's departure in the same way.

As for my first memory about RealGM, I remember sitting in the computer lab in college back in 1998... I just got finished reading the latest NBA rumors on NBAtalk.com, when I checked my Netscape email to find a message from some guy named Howard Mass who was putting together some kind of reader response Q&A article to post on RealGM.com. I can't remember all the details but I do remember seeing my name and location next to my response and thinking, "Awesome, my name is somewhere on the internet!"

...and I was scared about my identity, so it was a fake name, but real location!

Been following RealGM off and on all this time, but didn't sign up for a forum account until 2009. Prior to that I was posting on some weird O-zone forum on Delphi forums or something like that... lol. Early days nostalgia FTW!

If the RealGM website was not started until 2000, then where did this message post back in 1998?

Hmmm maybe it was 2000. I was still in college. Cause I remember that i had my pager on me too.

[BadMofoPimp]

A terrible no good very bad day indeed. Have a feeling OKC fans will remember Durant's departure in the same way.

As for my first memory about RealGM, I remember sitting in the computer lab in college back in 1998... I just got finished reading the latest NBA rumors on NBAtalk.com, when I checked my Netscape email to find a message from some guy named Howard Mass who was putting together some kind of reader response Q&A article to post on RealGM.com. I can't remember all the details but I do remember seeing my name and location next to my response and thinking, "Awesome, my name is somewhere on the internet!"

...and I was scared about my identity, so it was a fake name, but real location!

Been following RealGM off and on all this time, but didn't sign up for a forum account until 2009. Prior to that I was posting on some weird O-zone forum on Delphi forums or something like that... lol. Early days nostalgia FTW!

If the RealGM website was not started until 2000, then where did this message post back in 1998?

Hmmm maybe it was 2000. I was still in college. Cause I remember that i had my pager on me too.

The days of dial-up. I had taken a sabatical from the world due to the Automotive industry collapsing in Detroit to work on a ranch way out in Wyoming and got into Mountain climbing, skiiing and snow boarding. I had no internet so I would use my Aunts or Grandmothers when I would visit. I would peruse websites like RealGM or ProSportsDaily for my sports fix for news reports for a few minutes a few times a week. Other than that, I didn't really have TV as well from 2001 thru 2003. Then, I learned what Forums were all about . . . The world evolved and changed me forever.