Shaquille O’Neal is having his No. 32 jersey raised to the rafters by the Orlando Magic on Tuesday, becoming the first player to have his number retired by the franchise.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat have both retired Shaq’s jersey. He’s the fourth player to have his jersey retired by at least three different franchises — joining Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Pete Maravich.
Shaq spent four seasons in Orlando and won Rookie of the Year. He appeared in the All-Star Game each year with the Magic and led the franchise to its first NBA Finals in the 1994-95 season.
In 295 regular-season games, Shaq averaged 27.2 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game, all of which rank in the top three for career averages in franchise history.
Here’s a look at more key numbers from Shaq’s time in Orlando.
824: Shaq swatted a lot of shots in four seasons with the Magic — 824 to be exact, the second most in Magic history. His average of 2.8 per game leads the franchise in that category.
He had 10 games with at least 7 blocks, including a game with a career-high 15 in November 1993.
226: Throughout his 19-year career, Shaq had only five seasons where he didn’t average a double-double.
In Orlando, he had 226 double-doubles in 295 regular-season games. In the playoffs, he had 25 double-doubles in 26 games.
Shaq’s 25-point and 11-rebound performance helped close out the Indiana Pacers in the 1995 Eastern Conference finals, sending the Magic to their first NBA Finals.
58.1%: The four-time NBA champion shot a whopping 58.1% from the field in four seasons with the Magic. That’s just behind Bo Outlaw (58.5%) for the highest career field goal percentage in franchise history.
In games with at least 10 field goal attempts, Shaq’s field goal percentage with Orlando peaked at 93.8% when he scored 33 points in a January 1994 win.
20: Orlando finished 41-41 during Shaq’s rookie season, a 20-win difference compared to the previous season (21-61). For context, the Boston Celtics had a 32-win improvement over their previous season when Larry Bird joined the team in 1979.
The Magic narrowly missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker, but they made the postseason in each of Shaq’s remaining seasons.
22: Shaq did plenty of winning in the postseason with Orlando. In the 1995 and 1996 postseasons combined, the Magic won 22 playoff games.
That total is the second-most franchise postseason wins in a two-year span. Orlando won 23 between the 2009 and 2010 playoffs.
After Shaq left in 1996, the Magic had just 13 playoff wins from 1997 to 2008.
ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this story.
Source : ESPN
