OK, has there been any other player besides shaq that led 3 teams to the NBA finals where he was the best player at least twice, and no worse than the 2nd best player once.
How about Bill Russell? He won in high school, college, Olympics and 9 of 11 years in the NBA was the champion? HE didn't get traded three teams though. He just ended up player/coach and won that year too. All on the Celtics.
You're not kidding RF... That Magic team had everything. Inside game was there with Shaq of course (and this is back when he was ripping down backboards), Penny was an adequate point guard, 3-D and 3-Brick Nick were tremendous outside shooters, and there were a ton of consistent role players on the team. It's a shame that they couldn't even muster a game in that series against Houston.
Nick Anderson missing 4 free throws in crunch time when any one of them would have sealed the game against Houston didn't help much either. I went to about 15 home games that year and the Magic won every one of them.
They didn't lose their first home game until February 2 against Seattle, then lost again to Utah in March... but promptly lost a home game to Boston and Chicago in the first two rounds of the playoffs before that epic 7 game series with Indiana when the home team won all 7 games.
2 losses at home in the regular season, 4 in the playoffs...
Penny when he was with Orlando was something to behold. In his young days, I think he was probably one of the most athletically gifted players I ever saw.
Penny Hardaway?! He had rediculous hops, strength, size, he could shoot from anywhere, he saw the floor.