Shaq and Penny: When immaturity ruins a good thing
10 Takeaways from "This Magic Moment"
A sports allegory is a welcome change of pace from the politics beat I’ve been on. I have been on a very intentional mission of resetting my social media algorithm. And because I am keeping all the ridiculous political news at bay, I have found myself turning on Netflix at a higher rate than I have in the past. Though I may be late to the party, when I saw Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee (Penny) Hardaway on my Netflix home page marquee, I immediately clicked on it.
Pure nostalgia was my initial intention for watching it. I’ve shared before that I was a huge fan of the Chicago Bulls during the 90s. As a teenager, the walls in my bedroom were covered with Bulls posters. What I haven’t shared was during that same era, I was a big fan of Penny Hardaway. In fact, the first NBA game I personally bought tickets for was the Orlando Magic versus the Indiana Pacers. By that time, I was in college and I spent my hard earned internship money to sit 3 rows behind the Orlando bench all because of Penny Hardaway.
For as much as I was a fan of the Bulls, you’d think I’d be eyeing Bulls tickets. Perhaps I didn’t believe I could get Bulls tickets during that era, at least not good seats. You see, I had already made up my mind that I didn’t want to attend any live games if I could have a better viewing experience at home. But I kept my eye out for tickets to that Magic-Pacers game and I was ecstatic that a seat that close to Penny was within my reach.
So yeah, I wanted to go down memory lane. But as I watched the documentary, there were way too many Harmonious Balance teachable moments to pass up on. After letting the documentary marinate in my brain with a good night’s sleep, I have 10 takeaways for your consideration.
In no particular order…
1. Respect experience. I believe Michael Jordan is on record saying that as he got older he began to beat his opponents with his mind. It wasn’t just a matter of outplaying them. He knew how to outsmart the other team. Young teams that reach the big game are often the favorite going in, but end up upset because the more experienced teams know how to manage the moment better. The more experienced team also has a different motivation. Paraphrasing Ahmad Rashad, the young guys think they will always have a chance. Old guys think they may never get that chance again. The Houston Rockets were not going to let this moment the 2-year Jordan hiatus created pass them by. As such, the Rockets swept the Magic’s first time appearance in the NBA finals.
2. When revenge backfires (the Horace Grant effect). Orlando was able to plug a hole in their starting five when they brought on Horace Grant. His talent not only filled the power forward gap but he was core member of the first Bulls 3-peat teams. He had already been on the journey of losing streaks, playoff losses, and then sweet victory. But in the end I think Orlando misused him as an asset. They got caught up in the narrative of avenging his honor when they faced the Bulls in the playoffs. Not realizing that if you live by the sword, you will die by that same sword. They allowed their egos to be puffed up by that series win. And by that same sword their egos were deflated just a short time later in the 1995 Finals and obliterated the following year when the Bulls returned to normal order.
3. The name on the front vs the name of the back of the jersey. The number one way to sow dissension in a team is to, as Dwyane Wade says, begin focusing on the name on the back of the jersey and losing sight of the name on the front. Everything starts to fall apart when that happens. It’s a trip because everyone claims the goal is to win championships but the behavior of players, coaches, and team executives don’t always align with their claims. It certainly doesn’t help when the media and agents instigate these rifts. But players, coaches, and team executives fall for the oldest trick in the book every time and let their teams fall apart.
4. Partnering with a sports psychologist is a must. Back then, there really was no mental health support for athletes. Players were either mentally tough on their own or they weren’t. Unfortunately that mental toughness isn’t fully tested until high-pressure moments. Nick Anderson missed four straight free throws that would have undoubtedly clinched the Game One win in that Finals series with the Rockets. No one, not even Nick himself, thought he wouldn’t make at least one of those shots. Nick’s confidence was shot from that point forward. After Shaq’s departure, Penny became rattled and injury-prone. I’m absolutely confident if they had the benefit of a sports psychologist, these moments could have been prevented. At the very least, they could’ve recovered from these moments more whole because their mental energy would’ve been in proper balance.
It’s not just the players that can benefit from a sports psychologist. The entire organization needs to sit at the feet of a sports psychologist because he/she will often understand organizational behavior and provide insight into organizational effectiveness. Coaches, managers, and owners need to understand the secret sauce to winning organizations. Winning consistently is not by happenstance. Yet and still in 2024, it doesn’t appear that professional sports organizations fully grasp the advantage of having a sports psychologist at the ready. Though I must note that the NBA does lead the way with requiring all teams now to have a sports psychologist on staff full-time.
5. Emotional equity is required. In my view, between Penny and Shaq, the immaturity was one-sided. Penny was emotionally bought in even before he met Shaq. He knew how to pair his talent with Shaq’s. He wasn’t selfish. There was nothing said in this documentary or any other interview on the matter that indicated that Penny wasn’t down with the cause. In fairness to Shaq the relationship wasn’t always one-sided but it was only good while they were winning. When the tough got going, it was clear who was ride or die and who wasn’t.
6. A little humility goes a long way. This is an all too familiar story, but one that we never seem to learn from. Person A messes over Person B. Person A gets with Person C. Person C is the beneficiary of the lessons Person A should have learned with Person B. Shaq (person A) mentioned that he and Penny (person B) were “Shaq and Kobe (person C)” before “Shaq and Kobe.” It’s an interesting revelation because the chemistry between Shaq and Penny was seamless from the very beginning. Where as there was a serious rift between Shaq and Kobe initially.
It took them years to get what he and Penny had from the jump. If you followed the Lakers’ story, you know that Shaq ultimately had to soften and humble himself in order to achieve championship success in Los Angeles. Imagine if he had that degree of humility in Orlando. It’s a trip to me that with as predictable as these situations are, we can’t seem to prevent these scenarios from happening.
7. Bad team management. What sours me on team sports especially is bad management not knowing how to keep a powerhouse team together. While contract negotiation is a two-way street, management should know best practices and enlighten their teams on what it takes to financially build and maintain a winning franchise. It was said that the young Orlando Magic franchise was naive in its handling of Shaq’s free agency. Maybe so. But to this day, I see this same scenario play itself out season after season in every single, solitary team sport. Again predictable but something our flawed humanity can’t seem to prevent.
8. Most synergy cannot be recreated. This ties in with #7. When teams fall apart. management thinks they can simply rebuild and players think they can simply find their place with another team and find success. Rarely does it work that way. Instead these franchises and these players don’t really find their footing again. They threw away something without fully understanding what it was. They did catch fire but prematurely extinguished the flame. In Shaq and Penny’s case, they did experience a magic moment that could not be replicated. When you look at winning franchises, you will find that they don’t tinker with their winning formulas too much. Again, these outcomes are predictable.
9. Men need to learn how to express ALL of their feelings. It’s not “just business” and sports is not merely a quantitative endeavor. Ego and emotions are very much involved. Yet somehow we’ve been led to believe that emotional decisions and sports don’t mix. We think the topic of communication in relationships is reserved for male-female relationships with women wanting men to open up more. Well men need to learn how to open up with one another. In the case of the NBA, these teams are too small for there to be passive and passive-aggressive communication. No one should be left wondering what each other is thinking and what each other needs. Waiting 20+ years to finally sit down like men is a little too late. Furthermore in my view, similar to #7, team management should be able to sidestep these landmines by fostering a culture of open and honest communication.
10. Better late than never doesn’t erase the pain of what could’ve been. With the benefit of hindsight and maturity, Shaq admits to Penny that he let ego get in the way. While there is a measure of closure that admission brings and they could repair their relationship as older men, knowing what could’ve been still hurts. Penny knew that that after the Bulls finished their run, the Magic would’ve been in the best position to be the heir-apparent. The championship run that the Lakers subsequently found themselves on with Shaq was initially Orlando’s trajectory. There’s no pride in being proven right about something that you knew all along but can no longer make happen. To me there’s still a sadness in Penny’s eyes and voice when he talks about it.
As you read, the common theme that I was left with from watching This Magic Moment was how predictable all of this turmoil was. Yet the will to prevent the fallout seemed to be non-existent. Some may chalk that up to working with young, twenty-something men whose pre-frontal cortexes haven’t fully developed. But that should all be tempered by the older folks with fully formed brains that surround them. Yet the fallout is rarely prevented and I, for one, am disappointed by that.
As fun as it was to reminisce, I find stories like this akin to a tragedy. Yes it was great to see these two men reconcile, but I don’t want us to settle for preventable tragedies like reconciling after the fact is all our maturity can offer. I want to hear more stories about recognizing a good thing, holding onto it, nurturing it, and realizing its potential.
Onward with a good thing and Harmonious Balance, my friends!
Johanna
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I grew up in the Shaq penny era, they absolutely would have won if shaq stayed. It’s funny, because the thing that broke him and penny up, is what eventually broke him and Kobe up. Ego