Monday, May 8 It used to be Shaq with Penny, now they face off By Mitch Lawrence Special to ESPN.com

LOS ANGELES -- It's been billed as Shaq vs. Penny, and if you give it a few more seconds, it just might end up where Anfernee Hardaway has to guard Shaquille O'Neal.

	While Penny is leading the upstart Suns, he has to get by Shaq to move on.

If Luc Longley, Clifford Robinson, Rodney Rogers and Corie Blount aren't equipped to handle the job, as we saw in Game 1 of the Lakers-Suns conference semis, why not Penny? Maybe that can throw Shaq off his game.

Funny how it's worked out, but just five years ago, the very thought of Penny and Shaq playing in a playoff game against each other would have seemed totally ludicrous.

"If we had won that first game against Houston and gone on to win the championship, history would have changed," said Brian Shaw, a Laker now but a member of the 1995 Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic. "I didn't think you'd see all of the guys from that team on different teams now. When we lost in the Finals, we kind of took it for granted. We were like, 'We let it slip away this time. But we'll take care of business the next time and the next time and the time after that.'"

There was no next time, of course.

Dennis Rodman flew into Chicago from some unknown planet, Michael Jordan and the Bulls re-established their dominance, Shaq bolted for Hollywood and the Magic dynasty went poof.

The last we saw of the great Orlando team came on Memorial Day, 1996, as they were swept into history on their home court by the Bulls. A little over a month later, Shaq's signature was on a Laker free-agent contract, totalling a then-record $124 million. In places like New York and Chicago, they popped champagne bottles.

"We built our team in Chicago around the fact that that was the team that was going to be dominant for awhile, especially after they raided Horace Grant from our team," Phil Jackson said. "You know, it's funny how things change so quickly. But it happened to them and it was a kind of a forewarning of what was to come in the NBA."

True, stars come and go. But it's still shocking to see Shaq and Penny squaring off in their first playoff meeting, considering that the pieces once were in place for Orlando to pose a serious threat to the second half of the Bulls' championship run. Three-peat II might never have happened if the Magic hadn't broken up.

Shaq was only 24 and Penny just 25. Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott and Grant made up the rest of the starting lineup that won back-to-back Atlantic Division titles in '95 and '96 and 117 games over that two-year span.

There was plenty more room in the O-rena rafters for several conference championship banners and a few NBA championship flags. This was a team destined for the history books.

"They beat us by 50 points in the playoff opener, then went on to close Boston Garden," said L.A.'s Rick Fox, a member of that Celtics team that actually lost Game 1 by 47. "We tried four guys and nobody could guard Shaq."

Kind of like what happened to Phoenix in their Game 1 debacle Sunday.

"In this league," Fox said, "sometimes talent does not win you championships. But it will get you ahead of the pack. The Magic had pure talent, athleticism, speed and quickness. As they got better and better, they started to play well together. That's the reason they got to the Finals as quickly as they did."

It's only six seasons after their inaugural game, in which their top scorer was a feisty point guard named Scott Skiles. Before Hardaway came aboard, Skiles was the one who was throwing entry passes into Shaq. Once Penny arrived, an entire league turned its head.

"Those are situations that are made in heaven," Jackson said. "It seemed like Orlando got all the breaks in the drafts for a couple of years, and got to put the pieces together. It looked wonderful for them."

Right up until Game 1 of the '95 Finals against the Rockets. In a blink of any eye, Nick Anderson missed two fouls shots in the final seconds of regulation; Hakeem Olajuwon got loose for the biggest offensive rebound and stick-back of his Hall of Fame career; and Kenny Smith bombed in a three-point shot still heard 'round Central Florida.

If there's a date that lives in Magic infamy, it might well be June 7, 1995, when Houston defeated Orlando, 120-118, in overtime.

"You never know what would have happened if Anderson had made those foul shots at the end of the game, when Houston came back to win in overtime," Jackson said. "They didn't win a championship series that was sitting right there for them. It's a whole different scenario for the Orlando team now."

For Shaq and Penny, too.