Dennis Scott predicts Magic in 6

This isn’t the first time the Orlando Magic have arrived at the NBA Finals with a young superstar center nicknamed Superman and a sweet-shooting supporting cast — all playing lights-out basketball at the right time.

They did it 14 years ago, wearing similarly styled pin-striped uniforms and riding the back of a young Shaquille O’Neal. This year’s team is riding the massive shoulders of former Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy star Dwight Howard into the Finals against Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers.

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Dennis Scott, who spent the majority of his career with Orlando, says the Magic will win the NBA Finals in six games.

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Atlanta native Dwight Howard has the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals.

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Game 1 is tonight in Los Angeles.

The comparisons between the two Magic teams are striking, everything from their makeup to the way they play on both ends of the floor.

“It’s a great debate to have, and I can see where people would make all the connections,” said former Magic and Georgia Tech star Dennis Scott, who started at small forward alongside O’Neal on that 1995 Orlando team that was swept in the Finals by Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets.

“We were the young, up-and-coming team back then, just like this Magic team is now. Everybody thought it was going to be our coming out party and the first of many trips to the Finals for us.”

It turned out to be their last. None of the players on that 1995 Magic team made it back to the Finals in the same uniform — O’Neal went on to win four titles, three with the Lakers and one with Miami.

Scott, who lives in Sandy Springs, predicted a different finish for the Magic this time. “They’re winning it in six,” he said.

Ask him to choose a winner between the old Magic and new Magic, though, and he’s not nearly as diplomatic.

“We won 57 games, had the top seed in the entire playoffs and we not only had Shaq, we had a young Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway,” Scott said. “If you’re comparing our team to this one, it has to start with the stars, and they don’t have anyone to compare to a young Penny.”