章 109: 068: Goodbye Tony, my friend forever_4

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Reebok had a finger in the pie here; they'd contacted O'Neal, dreaming of pairing him with Roger.

Imagine, the two biggest Reebok endorsers playing together—and very likely, achieving results. How wonderful that would be!

For the Magic, losing the team's biggest cash cow was not an option.

Since the Magic joined the league in '89, they had been a forgotten corner-of-the-trash-bin team until O'Neal arrived.

In the two years since O'Neal's arrival, though the team's best result was only the first round of the playoffs, at least they started to make money and claim a spot in the league.

Last season, the team ranked ninth in attendance league-wide, which was an excellent achievement considering Orlando's market size.

So they couldn't afford to lose O'Neal, unless they had someone to replace him.

Under O'Neal's pressure, Pat Williams had no choice but to make that offer.

But Krause was still hesitating.

No one knew what kind of threat Roger paired with O'Neal would pose.