Former Magic guard Penny Hardaway, who is on the New York Knicks' inactive list, says that the Orlando media blamed him for Brian Hill's ouster in a player coup in 1997.

"The media in Orlando tried to make it out as something like I got him fired," Hardaway said. "But it was never that way. It was a young team trying to get better and we felt that as a team, we needed to make a change. Seeing him over there, I'm glad he got a second chance with the team."

Hardaway, who played for the Magic from 1993-99 and became an all-star, acknowledges he has an awkward relationship with Hill.

"Every time we see each other it's so strange. I only passed by him once when he was an assistant in Charlotte. We didn't say anything to each other," he said. "I would love to talk to him. I don't have any hard feelings and hopefully he doesn't either. But the media has made this split between us. And we did too many great things as a team with him as our coach to just be thinking about negativity."