e prevented the situation at Belmore Sports Ground earlier this year when a fan smuggled in a liquor bottle and hurled it at Canberra player | Forum

LONG BEFORE SHAQUILLE ONEAL was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, he was a lanky 20-year-old from LSU whose impact on the NBA game was so highly anticipated that each of the 11 teams at the 1992 draft lottery had a jersey printed with its logo -- and ONeals name -- stashed under the seat. Wholesale Bruins Jerseys .It was, says Orlando Magic senior vice president Pat Williams, the Shaq draft.Then-Charlotte Hornets coach Allan Bristows team had won the lottery the season before (and selected Larry Johnson), so he laid out the same suit and tie and checked into the same hotel in advance of the 1992 lottery. He also brought along his trusty turkey caller.Then-Dallas Mavericks owner Donald Carter, for his part, opted for a 10-gallon hat with a brim dotted with coyote teeth. He obsessively caressed his lucky stone in advance of the lottery results, prompting Williams, who had not brought along any good-luck charms, to inquire about it.Williams rubbed the stone and noticed it was speckled with raised bumps. Carter explained they spelled out Shaquille in braille.Carters stone didnt bring him the good fortune he was seeking: The Mavericks wound up with the fourth pick (Jimmy Jackson). After the Timberwolves won the third pick, the final two selections came down to Charlotte and Orlando.As the lottery unfolded, and each team fell into their slotted place, you could hear the rustle of those (Shaq) jerseys going back into the paper bag, Williams says. It was the sound of, Its not going to happen for us.The Magic had just one chance in 11 of winning, but that was enough as they brought home the No. 1 pick. It should have been cause for wild celebration in Orlando, but Williams knew there was a problem.ONeals then-agent, Leonard Armato, while acknowledging it was nice that the Magic won the rights to No. 1, was noncommittal about his clients willingness to play for Orlando.He was very standoffish, Williams says of Armato. We couldnt get a visit with Shaq.Armato liked the idea of ONeal playing for the Lakers, but Williams made it clear he wasnt trading his potential franchise player.Two days before the draft, ONeal finally agreed to visit Orlando. The Magic hastily arranged for a private plane to fly ONeal, his father Philip Harrison and ONeals younger brother Jamal into town.Jamal is about 12 or 13 at the time, Williams says. We have a lot of activities planned for Shaq, so we take Jamal to my house. My children are there and weve got a swimming pool and a basketball court.Everything is going well until we get word Jamal isnt happy with his lunch. He insisted he needed some pickles. So we had to make an emergency run to the grocery store.Later that evening, the Magic arranged an elegant, exclusive dinner with members of the DeVos family, who still own the team, along with some key sponsors and then-coach Matt Guokas, who plopped down at the end of the table where Williams, Shaq and Jamal were seated.Here we are having this very important dinner, and Shaq and Jamal start stealing food off each others plate, Williams says. Theyre stabbing each other with their forks. Then theyre shooting pieces of rolls at each other. Safe to say it was a food fight.I asked Matty about it later. He said, I didnt know what to do. I felt like sending them to their room.Sophomoric table manners hardly deterred the Magic. On the night of the 1992 NBA draft, which was held in Portland because USA Basketball was wrapping up the Tournament of Americas there, more than 10,000 Magic fans crammed into Orlando Arena to witness live on the video screen the selection of Shaquille ONeal as their savior.Longtime commissioner David Stern kicked off the proceedings by taking the mic to declare, The Orlando Magic is on the clock. You have five minutes to make your pick.All Williams needed to do was call the Magic representative in Portland, who would relay the teams selection to the commissioner. It should have been a matter of seconds.Yet a technical malfunction prevented the call from going through. One minute, then two, then three minutes went by. Engineers on site frantically tried to identify the problem, but the Magic had virtually no way to convey their Shaq selection to league officials in Portland.Now theres a minute left to go and Im thinking, This is going to be the biggest faux pas in the history of our sport, Williams says. What if we cant make our pick?Alex Martins, who is now the CEO of the Magic but back then was an industrious young public relations director, stepped outside Orlandos arena into the corridor and dialed up his oversize, boxy mobile Nokia phone, a novelty in those days. He called directly to the NBAs New York office and relayed the choice of Shaquille ONeal. The selection was recorded with just seconds to spare.It was getting close, Martins recalls. I think it was down to about 20 seconds. I dont know what they would have done if we didnt get the pick in on time.Stern, reached by ESPN on Tuesday, says he has no recollection of the near snafu.Of course, we would have made sure nothing untoward happened, and we would have made every effort to make sure we were in contact with them one way or another, Stern says, but I dont remember it. That was (former deputy commissioner) Russ Graniks problem. It was a great division of responsibility on my part.Granik is also fuzzy on the details of that night, but holding the event in Portland created some unusual obstacles, he says. So what would have happened if the Magic hadnt been able to call Shaqs name in time?We would have allotted for it somehow, Granik says. Were not crazy.While those five minutes were harried and nerve-wracking for the Magic, they were excruciating for ONeal, a superstitious young man who, even though the Magic had made it clear they would take him, fretted over a possible last-second change of heart.I wasnt going to believe it til I heard it myself, Shaq says. They could have changed their mind and gone for (Alonzo) Mourning or (Christian) Laettner.Shaqs mother, Lucille Harrison, says the family was unaware of the technical difficulties surrounding his selection, in part because they were so nervous.We werent familiar with the business of it all, Lucille explains now. We were excited he was picked at all.What I remember most is the fact this dream Shaquille had was now happening. He was walking into the reality of it.While Stern remains hazy on Shaqs initial introduction to the league, he quickly became familiar with the big man because of incessant correspondences from Armato.Leonard became a regular at my desk, Stern says. Hed call me, send me letters, and come in and tell me how our refs werent used to calling fouls against players guarding someone as large as Shaq. He said they werent calling fouls that they would call if Shaq were a normal human being, because after all, Shaq was superhuman.We listened and we told Leonard, We feel your pain. Period. End of sentence. We understood what he was saying.Shaquille ONeal went on to play 20 seasons in the NBA -- though only four of them with the Magic. He led the Magic to the NBA Finals in 1995 (and fell short) but won championships with Los Angeles and Miami while maintaining his home in Orlando. Nineteen years after he bolted in a rancorous exit from the Magic to play for the Lakers, he returned in 2015 to be inducted into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame. That evening, he admitted, I regret (leaving) sometimes. Is this where I started and should have stayed? I actually wish theyd make it a law that whoever drafts you, youve got to stay there your whole career.Granik says that about a month and a half before Shaquille ONeal embarked on his dominant NBA journey, he and his father -- nicknamed Sarge because of his stern visage -- requested an audience with the commissioner and his deputy.It was pretty rare when that happened, but the few times (players did that) we accommodated them, Granik says. Its mostly, What should I know about the league? What do I need to do?I made a joke to Shaq in our meeting about how much publicity he was getting. I told him, Weve been hearing a lot about you. I sure hope you can play. The look from his dad was unforgettable. I had to tell him, Im kidding, Im kidding!There was one other draft prospect who requested a similar audience before the draft in 1992: Christian Laettner, the star from Duke.Laettner told us, I know Im better than Mourning, but that guy Shaq is better than all of us, Granik says.He was right. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. Cheap Bruins Jerseys . Galatasaray said in a statement on its website Monday that Mancini signed a three-year contract and will be paid 3.5 million euros for the upcoming season, with his salary upped to 4. http://www.cheapbruinsjerseys.com/ . Pert has formerly spent time as an assistant coach with Cardiff City, Coventry City, and Bahrain mens national team. "Martyn is a highly-respected coach with experience at the top levels in England," said Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson. Transparent stadium bags are being introduced into sporting venues around Australia in a bid to ease public safety fears, including terrorism concerns.The shift is in line with moves adopted by the key American sports.If those policies are adopted by sporting bodies here such as the NRL and AFL, it could means fans will only be permitted to bring smaller see-through bags to their favourite sporting games.The NFL significantly beefed up its stadium bag policy in response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.The SCG Trust has started selling the bags in its stadium store and Sydney Olympic Park venues could follow.The bags, which retail for around $10, reach a maximum size of 30cm x 38cm and can carry the fan essentials such as an extra layer of clothing, a water bottle, a mobile phone and sunglasses.David Freeman of Brands In Motion have has been involved in introducing the bags to venues across Australia. Cheap Bruins Jerseys China. The idea of the design is to limit how much people can bring in a game, Freeman told AAP.At the same time transparent bags cover those security concerns and make it difficult for people to smuggle alcohol or weapons into the game.Fans can take the essentials into the game, nothing more, northing less.Transparent bags are the norm in the US and it could become the norm in sports venues across the country here.The transparent bags could also have prevented the situation at Belmore Sports Ground earlier this year when a fan smuggled in a liquor bottle and hurled it at Canberra players just beyond the fence of the suburban ground. Wholeslae Jerseys NFL Jerseys Cheap Wholesale NBA Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Cheap MLB Jerseys Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Cheap College Jerseys Cheap Football Jerseys Cheap Basketball Jerseys Cheap Baseball Jerseys ' ' '