"We need to maintain cap space flexibility, and we need to re-sign Hardaway next year."

In the 1996 offseason, after four seasons with the Orlando Magic, Shaquille O 'Neal became a full free agent.

Even though the Magic had just been swept by Michael Jordan's Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals, the loss didn't make O 'Neal lose faith in the team's future. He's led the team to the Finals in his third season in the league, and he's teamed up with a promising young guard in Anfini Hardaway to see a bright future for O 'Neal. As soon as the season ended, he told the media that he wanted to stay with the Magic: "I only have one goal, and that is to stay with the Magic and win a championship."

In the 1995-96 season, O 'Neal appeared in 54 games, averaged 26.6 points, 11.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.1 blocks per game, has shown the dominant force, become the league's top post. But the Magic snubbed a gem that other teams would love to have.

That offseason, the Wizards gave Juwan Howard seven years, $105 million, and the Heat gave Alonzo Mourning seven years, $105 million. O 'Neal is at Mourning's level and has better numbers than Mourning, and he certainly doesn't want to be paid less than Mourning after he was chosen No. 1 over him in the draft. O 'Neal and his team were stunned when the Magic offered him four years and $65 million.

"We need to maintain cap space flexibility, and we need to re-sign Hardaway next year." John Gabriel, then the Magic's president of basketball operations, left a message for O 'Neal's team.

Think of O 'Neill future brilliant achievements and Hardaway injury ridden lonely, you will be the magic management shortsighted sigh, but history can not be seen through the eyes, and considering the background of The Times, the position of the magic management is not difficult to understand.

At a time when the "Big Four" centers are competing for supremacy, O 'Neal is no standout. In addition, Jordan's success with the Bulls influenced the way the front office thought about how to build a team. The center was no longer the unassailable core, and star guards and versatile forwards were considered the best way to win a championship. As a result, the Magic's front office sees Anfini Hardaway, the successor to Jordan who averaged 21.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 7.1 assists in 1995-96, as the team's first option.

But O 'Neal, who at a young age is one of the league's top 50 all-time stars, said he had to be welcomed everywhere. Infuriated by what seemed like an insulting offer from the Magic's front office, O 'Neal went to John Gabriel with a seven-year, $150 million offer, only to split the deal.

In response to O 'Neal's huge demand, the Magic put out a short questionnaire in the Orlando Sentinel asking if O 'Neal was worth a seven-year, $115 million Max extension. 91.3% of fans voted "NO."

What the Magic did infuriated O 'Neal. Years later, in his autobiography Shaq Uncut, O 'Neal described how he felt: "It was like getting punched in the chest with a solid fist. I felt betrayed, the management failed me, the fans didn't stand with me, and the bizarre voting campaign made me furious. The minute I got the paper, I knew it was over."

When it was reported that O 'Neal and the Magic had reached an impasse on a contract extension, Lakers president Jerry West was quick to act. He called O 'Neal's agent and told him that the Lakers only have seven years and $95 million to work with, but that he would immediately start clearing other contracts in order to get the best deal for O 'Neal.

West's sincerity was a welcome relief to O 'Neal, who had been tormented by contract extension negotiations, and his agent, Renard Amotto, who wanted to stay in the East and fight Jordan, to move west. Not long after, O 'Neal and West signed a seven-year, $120 million deal in Atlanta. Since then, the big shark westward landing, covered with purple and gold robes.

Since then, the story has become history, O 'Neal in the Lakers to dominate the league, Magic management in the eyes of the "Mr. Right" Hardaway can not escape the curse of injury. The Magic went through a slump and a rebuild, bringing in another No. 1 center in 2004 only to send him to the Lakers again eight years later.

Thirty years after Shaquille O 'Neal was the No. 1 overall draft pick, the Magic have another No. 1 inside player. Can they keep their No. 1 overall pick this time around?