Shaquille O'Neal Needed One Word To Describe Why He And Penny Hardaway Broke Up In Orlando

Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway formed a duo the likes of which the NBA had not seen, a precursor for O'Neal's annex with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles with the Lakers.

O'Neal left the Magic for Tinseltown in July of 1996 , breaking up a team that knocked Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls out of the 1995 NBA Playoffs.

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O'Neal and Hardaway could have become the most dominant duo in the Eastern Conference since Jordan and Scottie Pippen before O'Neal made his famous move.

This weekend, the one-word reason why he and Hardaway broke up was revealed, pulling the curtain down on what could have been one of the greatest potential dynasties the NBA world never had the pleasure of watching.

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"Now that I'm looking back, why did we break up? O'Neal said according to his The Big Podcast With Shaq show according to SI.com. "Egos," O'Neal said.

"Other people were talking and that was the only time I broke the professional jealousy thing.

"When they said it wasn't my team anymore, it hurt a little bit. Since they said it wasn't my team, it's his team now, let's see what the other teams want to offer me," O'Neal said.

He resolved to entertain offers from other teams including the Lakers, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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