Shaquille O’Neal’s $35M former teammate recalls what exactly didn’t work out between Penny Hardaway and The Diesel

The same reason that led to his breakup with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers led Shaquille O’Neal out of Orlando.

As terrific a player as Shaquille O’Neal was in his prime, there was nobody on the planet who could keep the 7-foot-1 giant grounded, not at least in the NBA. Do not get us wrong, we know that man never forgot to give it back to the society in his own way since he made it big.

But that is totally separate from how he was in the league. The man had his pride from which he wasn’t going to back down, not at least in front of younger guards.

Be it those guards having the potential to win him rings, The Diesel always wanted to be the ringleader. The center wanted to be the center point of the team through which anything and everything on offense went through and rightfully so.

But that’s where his ego collided with both Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway in Orlando and Kobe Bryant in LA who also wanted to be the focal point of it all.

Also read: Shaquille O’Neal treats son, Shaqir O’Neal, like Charles Barkley with “4 ring logic” in on-court trash talk

Horace Grant recalls ego stood in the way of Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway

A former teammate of O’Neal, who played with both the iconic duos with Magic as well as the Lakers, Horace Grant, once recalled in front of The Ringer’s Bill Simmons about the problem that led the two great partnerships to end prematurely.

The Big Aristotle was not to blame totally for either of those breakups, though. He did come into the league before both those guys and from Day 1 proved himself worthy enough to be the main man of a championship-contending team.

Anfernee was not wrong either. Although he came into the league a year after Shaq, he was almost an year older than him and also proved himself to be a great player from his first year on. In their second year together, they defeated Jordan’s Chicago Bulls on their way to the NBA Finals, which would be O’Niel’s first.

After the future 4x champ left the Magic in 1996 following a defeat to MJ’s Bulls and having a fall-out with Hardaway for the leadership in Orlando, Shaq joined Bryant in LA becoming the highest-paid player in the league. But after retirement he has admitted Penny to have been the Kobe before Kobe.

Also read: $400 million Shaquille O’Neal turned up to Jimmy Fallon’s show with a real fish’s head on a locket

Anyways, his Lakers went on to win 3 championships in his 8-years with the club, with him winning FMVPs in each of those Finals. But the same thing started happening with Bryant, as he himself grew into a tremendous player by his second year in the league and wanted to be the face of his franchise.

So, O’Neal had to leave two teams with great potential to win rings and more rings because of the battle of egos and the 4x NBA champ and $35 million worth Grant was there to witness it both developing first-hand.