``The magnitude of that Game 7 gave us the knowledge that this young franchise was heading to the NBA Finals,’’ Williams continued. ``Every where you turned, it was Magic here and Magic there,’’ Magic co-founder and Senior Vice President Pat Williams remembered. ``Michael Jordan, after losing to us the year before, there’s no way he was going to allow that (1996) Bulls team to not win a NBA championship.

For the Magic, that seemed to be a very good thing as Anderson made 70.4 percent of his free throw attempts during the regular season and he had hit 40 of 53 tries (75.4 percent) in the three rounds of the playoffs before the Finals. I let it creep into my soul. Even though O’Neal, head coach Brian Hill and others tried to comfort Anderson in the losing locker room afterward, the free throw misses at the end of regulation haunted the talented shooting guard. By John Denton June 5, 2015. Why not now?’’ in reference to the Magic being good enough to defy the odds and get to the NBA Finals.

And Magic fans that filled Orlando Arena with enthusiasm and noise were a big part of the team’s impressive run to its first NBA Finals. Orlando came into the Game 7 highly motivated after getting embarrassed 123-96 at Indiana’s Market Square Arena in Game 6.

Our crowd was just loving it and it was one of the highlights of the 26 years of this franchise. After all, O’Neal was 24 years old, Hardaway was 23 and the rest of the core remained in place. ``I’ve had other coaches and people around the league tell me that if we had won that first game that they think we would have won the series,’’ said Brian Hill, Orlando’s highly successful head coach at the time. That allowed Houston to tie the game and win it 120-118 in overtime on a tip-in by Hakeem Olajuwon. This site is operated jointly by NBA and WarnerMedia. Games 3 and 4 in Texas were close, but the Rockets still found a way to win as Olajuwon rolled to the NBA Finals MVP award.

``Shaq put the Orlando Magic on the map – not just in the state of Florida or in the United States; he was this global phenomenon,’’ said Fox Sports Florida play-by-play commentator David Steele, one of just three Magic employees to work for the franchise all 26 years of its existence. He won’t be happy and it won’t be good for the league.’ Well, as Game 1 plays out, Houston turned it around and came right back at us. Site Last Updated: Saturday, August 1, 4:25AM Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction?

Second free throw: Short again, causing the carom to bounce all the way back to Anderson at the free throw line where he was once again fouled. Sadly, the horrifying sequence didn’t end there for the Magic and Anderson.

Williams simply remembers what the turn of events did to a Magic fan base that had been so giddy just an hour or so earlier.

But the championship dreams – as the case was with many NBA teams’ aspirations – died at the hands of Michael Jordan, who led the Bulls to 72 wins in 2006 and an Eastern Conference sweep of the Magic. ``It was a beautiful thing – and then the series started.’’

And it was an absolute crushing. … That haunted me for a very long time.’’ O’Neal dominated and decimated Rik Smits, Dale Davis, Antonio Davis and the Pacers inside throughout the series, averaging 27.3 points on 66.1 percent shooting.

After all, the Knicks and Pacers had far more experience and Jordan had returned from baseball to make the Bulls a contender again in the stacked Eastern Conference. The following year I thought we would be a legitimate contender and we were, but unfortunately we had to beat Chicago which had just had the best season in NBA history with 72 wins,’’ said Brian Hill, whose 1996 squad won 60 games despite O’Neal missing a third of the season with a thumb injury. In some ways that 1995 NBA Finals announced the Magic to the rest of the sports world, but fans around the globe were already very familiar with the franchise because of the enormity of O’Neal’s game and persona. The defending champion Rockets limped into the playoffs at 47-35, but they beat Utah in the first round and rallied from a 3-1 deficit to knock off Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in the second round of the playoffs. But the fateful sequence that still haunts Anderson to this day, happened like this: That was the one thing that defeated me. Forgive those with Magic ties if they aren’t a bit envious that the documentary isn’t about the beginning of several titles in Orlando. 1 seed by virtue of 57 wins, many thought Orlando wasn’t yet ready to compete for a title. After squandering a 24-12 start to the game and allowing the Pacers to creep within 52-45 by halftime, Orlando turned the game into a laugher in the third period with a 28-18 spurt that allowed it to push its lead out to as much as 19 points. Privacy Act, please use the links below to visit each company’s privacy center.

I felt like we were set up to win two or three rings, but it just never happened for us.’’ And that’s why I say to anyone who plays professional basketball to seize the moment because you don’t know if you will ever get back to that place.’’ Every Sports Reference Social Media Account. All around town, store fronts featured Magic logos, cars had Magic license plate covers and items such as Grant goggles, Shaq’s Superman capes and Lil’ Penny dolls were everywhere. Even though the Magic possessed one of the game’s most lethal inside-outside combos in O’Neal and Hardaway, were loaded with talent at every spot and had the East’s No.

If we had won Game 1 our team would have had a whole different mindset. ``I remember vividly standing in my little corner (of the O-rena concourse) and we were taking it to Houston and it felt like we were picking up where we had left off in Game 7 against Indiana,’’ Williams said.