"Penny is the only guy I've seen who didn't really care that he was playing against MJ" - Shaquille O'Neal on how he and Penny Hardaway defeated Michael Jordan in 1995
No team dominated the 1990s more than Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. When Jordan wore the Bulls' familiar red, white, and black digs, no team could stop them until 1995, when they encountered the hungry Orlando Magic in the Playoffs' second round.
Led by agile big man Shaquille O'Neal and the uber-talented Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway, the Magic had something going. It was poised to rule the Eastern Conference. MJ had just returned from a hiatus and was still knocking off the rust from his game. However, despite that, "His Airness" remained as dangerous as ever, which meant the Magic had to bring their A-game to challenge the Bulls.
Believed they could win
MJ was such a transcendent talent that he struck fear into his opponents' hearts. When the Bulls were on deck, foes entered the arena with trepidation. However, the Magic did not back down. They genuinely believed they could win, and Shaq leaned on their "dog" mentality to get the job done.
"You gotta have dogs, right? I knew what my mentality was. When I looked at Penny, I knew that was his mentality, too," Shaq said on "The Big Podcast with Shaq." "If your two main guys believe that you can win, everyone else is going to believe it too."
The man known as "Diesel" gave a lot of credit for their success in that series to Penny, who wasn't fazed by the man he was matched up with, MJ. The 6-foot-7 guard averaged 18.5 points, 7.5 assists, and 1.8 steals per game in that series, which the Magic won 4-2.
"Penny is the only guy I've seen who didn't really care that he was playing against Michael Jordan. He had that same fearless mentality that I had," Shaq shared.
Penny, while respectful of Jordan's status as the 'Greatest of All Time,' was not intimidated by the prospect of facing him. He understood that to be the best, they had to defeat the best.
"From my point of view, it was respect, but it wasn't fear," Hardaway asserted. "The Bulls had instilled fear in people, but for me, it was an anxiousness to get to it. If you're the greatest of all time, which I respect, then you're going to have to show me. That was my mentality. I wanted to play against Michael Jordan. If we were going to get to a championship, we had to go through him."
Shaq came prepared
Shaq, known for his unstoppable offense, was aware of his Achilles' heel: free-throw shooting. He anticipated the Bulls' strategy of fouling him and prepared accordingly.
"I knew I had to do better at the free throw line because they were already telling us their game plan—using their 18 fouls. I called my boy Buzzy Braman and really focused on shooting a lot of free throws. I shot so many free throws that I hated it, but it worked. I had a couple of good games with solid free throw shooting, and they had no answer for that," Shaq relayed. A career 52 percent shooter from the line, the "Big Aristotle" made an astounding 65 percent of his free throws in that series to make the Bulls pay for constantly fouling him.
A beautiful thing
Whether Jordan was at his best or not, Shaq says nobody can take that feat away from them. The big man played a heck of a series, averaging 24.3 points, 13.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.0 steals, and 2.0 blocks per game, establishing himself as the most dominant big man in the East.
"Of course, they'll say, 'Michael was wearing 45; he wasn't the same Mike.' It doesn't matter. Whoever is on the court, it's about what happens," Shaq emphasized. "That's not our problem, not our fault. Whoever stepped on the court had to be dealt with."
For Penny, it was a moment he would never forget for the rest of his days.
"Once we overcame that hurdle, it was a surreal moment. It was like, 'We just beat the Bulls, now it's time to go,'" Penny bared.
The Magic's Cinderella run that postseason did not have a storybook ending. Their defeat by Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets, 4-0, in the NBA Finals, was a bittersweet conclusion to their remarkable journey.
