Former Magic center Shaquille O'Neal never fully wanted to leave the team when he did. Now, O'Neal, who was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame Friday, admits he regrets leaving the Magic for the Lakers, reports the Associated Press.
"It's unexpected because I came here to win. We won games and then I made a business decision," said O'Neal. "It's never personal. The (team owner Rich) DeVos family knows that. And I accomplished (a championship) somewhere else. It's not like I didn't think they weren't going to be upset or anything. But it's business. It was all business.
"Do I regret it? I never fully answer it. I regret it sometimes. Is this where I started and should have stayed? I actually wish they made it a law that whoever drafts you, you gotta stay there your whole career."
O'Neal, who finished his 21-year career averaging 23.7 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, felt the team had its best chance to win a title in 1995.
"That's why I kind of regret it, because we had a young, fabulous team," O'Neal said. "We really did. And it's a shame that we got torn apart. But I think about that all the time. I try not to live my life now on 'ifs' or 'would've, should've,' but do I regret leaving here in '96, yes I do."
He signed a seven-year, $120 million in the summer of 1996 with the Lakers.
"I wish I would have had more patience," he said. "I wanted to be protected from the bashing. What I mean by that is I wanted to win then. Even when I got (to Los Angeles) I still got bashed, it took four years to win. But I was very impatient. I was very young and I thought that if I go there, with those guys out there I could win right away and that wasn't the case."
