Orlando Works for Last Shot Against Hardaway

To the surprise of no one, especially Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway was savaged on his way out of Orlando while he was bound for the Phoenix Suns in a sign-and-trade deal. He assumes a new role as the scourge of Central Florida.

“The Orlando Magic took the honorable way out, sticking $86.6 million in the pockets of a gutless traitor,” George Diaz wrote in the Orlando Sentinel.

“In return, Penny Hardaway simply stuck a knife in their backs. Again.

“The slice-and-dice is Penny’s signature move, one that will define his legacy with the Magic. The DNA evidence is irrefutable: His handprints are on the knife he used to bloody coach Brian Hill, undercut teammate Nick Anderson and stab elderly Chuck Daly into retirement.”

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More Penny pinching: “For all his cumulative wealth spread throughout [the community of] Isleworth and beyond,” Diaz added, “Hardaway never could bring himself to buy the one cheap accessory that he truly needed: a mirror.

“Hardaway never has looked at himself and taken an honest appraisal. So much more convenient to look elsewhere and point fingers.”

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Trivia time: Who was the first college basketball coach to win 100 games at three schools?

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Just Lou it: Lou Holtz hasn’t gotten to the first game as the new football coach at South Carolina, but he’s already in midseason form.

“The first day of practice we were in pads, I was thinking, ‘What in the world am I doing here?’ ” Holtz told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “I soon realized why they decided to televise our first two games this season. They want to get rid of violence on TV.”

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LT IQ: He might not have displayed it all the time off the field, but Lawrence Taylor, the great linebacker just inducted into the Hall of Fame, had brains to match his brawn. So say those who saw him up close.

“People say Lawrence Taylor was amazing on the field, and that’s all true,” former teammate Carl Banks told Newsday. “But this guy was so smart about football, he was able to tell the coaches what to do, and he was able to come up with a better plan.”

Said former Redskin quarterback Joe Theismann: “Everyone talks about him being such a great physical talent, but I saw the subtle things he did that made him so great. He understood the little things: how to work the angles to pick up two steps in pursuit. Or how to dip his left shoulder and make the [turn around the] corner.”

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More LT: And then there’s the other side.

“I say let Taylor have his moment,” Bernie Lincicome wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “and may he visit Canton often between incarcerations.

“Unlike Groucho Marx, Taylor is eager to belong to the only club that will have him as a member. A shoddy house just got a little bit trashier.”

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Trivia answer: Frank McGuire, at St. John’s, North Carolina and South Carolina.

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And finally: From Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune: “The prospect of [Mark] McGwire’s 500th home run and Tony Gwynn’s 3,000th hit coming in the same game was baseball’s greatest set of milestones since Eric Gregg and Bruce Froemming passed up dessert.”