O’Neal Finding Weather Awfully Nice Up There

“The NBA ain’t ready for this kid. This is like Wilt coming into the league.”

--Indiana Pacer President Donnie Walsh,

before the 1992 draft

*

Gee, has it been that long?

It’s eight years later and the Pacers are here to play the Lakers, not that they seem to be looking forward to it.

“God,” whispers Pacer General Manager David Kahn, watching a small mountain move toward the middle of the floor for the opening tip, “Shaq is huge.”

Of course, after eight seasons, everyone knows how big Shaquille O’Neal is, but these days, he scares opponents that much more. He’s actually more trim than he was a year ago, but in stature, he blocks out the sun.

Seven feet 1, 330 pounds. Indiana has the NBA’s tallest lineup with 7-4 Rik Smits and 6-11 Dale Davis, but lining up against O’Neal, they look like saplings next to a Sequoia.

The Laker medical staff is similarly awed. Most NBA players, notes one of their doctors, are ectomorphs--thin with long arms and legs. O’Neal is a huge mesomorph with a deep chest, wide shoulders and powerful legs, like a 7-foot linebacker.

When Wilt Chamberlain arrived in 1959, there was only one other listed 7-footer, the Detroit Pistons’ Walter Dukes. Now there are 33, with 11 taller than O’Neal, but O’Neal is as far ahead of his time in size and athleticism as Wilt was of his.

“When Shaq was in the East, everyone always had to worry about matching up with him, “ says Walsh, laughing, “and nobody matches up with him.”

When O’Neal arrived, he was 20 and he had peers: Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing, who were 30; David Robinson, who was 27.

Now there’s no one at his level. O’Neal squashed Ewing, 43-12, last week. Olajuwon just got the rest of the season off because of a breathing problem. Robinson has been eclipsed by teammate Tim Duncan.

Duncan is a better free-throw shooter and a more refined post player, but next to O’Neal, who outweighs him by 80 pounds, he’s an overlisted power forward. So is lion-hearted Alonzo Mourning.

Before the season, five general managers, asked to pick three players they’d want to start a team around, all listed Duncan first. O’Neal received one second-place vote and one third. That was how low his reputation had sunk.

O’Neal says the difference is he’s healthy, but it also has had a lot to do with Phil Jackson making it clear to everyone this is his team, challenging him to live up to the responsibility and turning his attention to things he didn’t do--and O’Neal accepting it.

Before, when O’Neal talked about what his team needed, it was at the offensive end. It needed shooters. It needed to move the ball--i.e., get it to him--and make better decisions. Defense came up implicitly, if at all: O’Neal wanted a “thug,” someone to help with the dirty work, or to do the dirty work.

Now he plays both ends hard and the Lakers, who milled around last season, are a tight defensive unit, No. 3 in the league, No. 1 in opponents’ field-goal percentage, the platform for everything they’ve accomplished.

“I’ll tell you what, Phil will get on him too,” Executive Vice President Jerry West says. “No question, he’ll get on him.

“I think he’s helped Shaquille look at the game a little differently. But you have to remember about Shaquille, he’s carried a tremendous burden wherever he’s been with the rebounding, scoring--everyone wants him to be everything, OK? And when you put that much burden on someone, it takes more of an emotional toll than it takes a physical toll.

“I just think that he’s starting to be appreciated--

I mean, people were hard on him in this town. They were very nice to him, he was unbelievably well-received, but the Clipper game where they were chanting ‘MVP,’ I haven’t heard our fans do that.”

For what it’s worth, O’Neal is a lock for the MVP, whatever it means.

No one has ever defined “most valuable.” Is it the best player? The best team’s best player? The best player we haven’t already given this award to?

This season, O’Neal is all three, so there’s no way he can be missed. He’s the large mesomorph, dominating everything.

FACES AND FIGURES

This just in from Mt. Olympus: Michael Jordan, tiring of suggestions Vince Carter is the next him, likes Kobe Bryant’s game better. “Offensively, there are times when he [Bryant] can’t control his desire to be creative,” Jordan told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Vince Carter’s probably the worst thing for him because Vince can dunk and do all the incredible things and that makes Kobe want to do them too, for the notoriety. But Vince doesn’t play defense. Kobe can play both ends. Right now he’s a better all-around player. And he’s only 21? The kid hasn’t even touched on his greatness.” . . . Replied Carter, not given to acknowledging distress: “So what? It’s no different than hearing it from anybody else.”

Big None: How messed up were the Milwaukee Bucks before exploding out of a 6-16 slump to rout the Pacers at Indianapolis? George Karl was skipping his big three and designing last shots for reserve Tim Thomas. Said Ray Allen, after missing 29 of 36 shots in a two-game stretch, in what didn’t sound like a compliment for Karl: “What is Milwaukee Bucks basketball? You should always have some type of identity, and we have no identity. It’s kind of coming down to the wire. We’ve talked about making a move and doing something with the season, but time is starting to run out. Talk is starting to sound very cheap.”

Always leave ‘em laughing: In a farewell news conference, Isaiah Rider accused Atlanta Hawk teammates Dikembe Mutombo and LaPhonso Ellis of ratting him out to the NBA’s narcs. General Manager Pete Babcock said he knew they didn’t--because he was the one. “I got a call after we returned to Atlanta [from a trip to Orlando] from hotel security telling me that there was evidence J.R. had used marijuana in his room,” Babcock said. “I couldn’t bury that sort of thing. I called league security and then league security conducted its own investigation.” Babcock, on his year with Rider, whom he got from the Portland Trail Blazers with Jim Jackson for Steve Smith: “It was worse than I ever imagined.” . . . We’re not sure who Pete was talking to but it was right in line with what most people imagined.

Toronto Raptor Coach Butch (Capt. Queeg) Carter, set off by an innocuous New York Times quote from a marketing consultant saying the NBA should move Vince Carter to a major market, launched into a tirade about “forces south of the border” trying to break up his team, which is apparently also threatened by forces in Maple Leaf Sports, which owns the basketball and hockey teams, which Carter blames for putting out a story his job was in trouble. “Americans are very vain,” the coach said in what was supposed to be an advertisement for Toronto. “They think Toronto is like Winnipeg. They don’t understand that our weather is the same as Detroit or Cleveland.” After meeting with General Manager Glen Grunwald the next day, Carter acknowledged, “I took my spanking from my general manager this morning. He and I have been together a long time. He understands the way I am.” . . . Yeah, wrapped a little too tight.

Mr. Loyalty: A last-second game-winning three-pointer by the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Peeler all but knocked the Boston Celtics out of the playoff race, but Coach Rick Pitino is still upbeat, publicly. “I think young players, if you stay positive--and that’s been my message all along--are going to get better,” he said. “I told them from day one, ‘I brought you here. I believe in you. I put this team together and I believe in you totally.’ And they’re backing me up. I don’t think our staff ever got down. I think you people as media and the fans, when we lost--and you have a right to think that way--lost confidence in this team. We never lost confidence in them and they never lost confidence in each other.” You could clip and save this in case Pitino leaves this summer or next, which has about a 100% chance of happening. . . . Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan, wearing a green shirt on St. Patrick’s Day, asked if he’s Irish: “I’m Southern Illinois.”