Orlando’s O’Neal Is Nobody’s Mouse

As he begins his first season in the NBA, No. 1 draft pick Shaquille O’Neal has this propensity for thinking everything will be all right. Maybe it’s naivete, maybe it’s just habit, but then again maybe he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

“A lot of guys sacrificed to get me here,” he said of his Orlando Magic teammates, who restructured their salaries to accommodate his. “If we have the same style as basketball players, we should be all right.”

More of this rosy optimism: “Money is not everything,” he said. “That’s what’s wrong with the world today, everything is based on money. As long as I’m happy and having fun, I’ll be all right.”

“I had some pretty bad experiences with the media in high school and a little bit in college,” he said. “At this level, I’m going to try not to make any mistakes --try to say the right things, show a positive attitude all the time and never make arrogant comments. I think if I do that, I’ll be all right for a long time.”

He’s innocent, but worldly. Fun-loving, but serious. A kid, but an adult. He’s potentially one of the best centers in history because he has an otherworldly combination of size, strength, quickness and skill and, wow: This guy is HUGE! He’s also just embarked on a six-month odyssey, which began Friday night with a 12-point, 18-rebound effort in Orlando’s 110-100 victory over Miami.

“From what I’ve seen in the league,” Orlando’s scrappy, sixth-year, guard Scott Skiles said, “top-10 (draft) picks come in and they say to themselves during their first exhibition season, ‘I can be a good player in this league for 10 or 12 years,’ and that’s what they do -- and that’s all they do.

“And then you get other guys who say to themselves, ‘Now wait a minute.’ And they start thinking about championships and they start thinking about leading their teams and they start thinking about the Hall of Fame and being franchise-type players. And they work extra, they do all the little things that it takes to get to that point. Which way he goes, it’s just way too soon to tell. ...

“He’s still a long way away. He needs to learn what we’re doing more. He needs to be more intense. He needs to work harder, get in better shape. ... I mean, a lot of guys come into the league with a lot of potential.”

Uh, Scott, have you ever seen anybody with his potential?

“Nope.”

Okay, who comes the closest?

“Well, I don’t know if anybody does.”

This is why O’Neal received a seven-year, $40 million contract from the Magic that required it to restructure the contracts of five players (who, in the words of General Manager Pat Williams, got “some reward” for their cooperation), trade one and renounce its rights to another.

O’Neal is at least part of the reason why Orlando, with the NBA’s second-worst record last season (21-61) and dim prospects for major improvement this season, is scheduled to be on TNT four times and on NBC twice, giving it one more national TV appearance than the defending Midwest Division champion and Western Conference finalist Utah Jazz.

O’Neal is a 7-foot-1, 303-pound, size 21EEE-footed 20 year old. The day after the June 24 draft, he flew to Orlando and got off the plane wearing Mickey Mouse ears with “Shaquille” stenciled on the back.

“I’ll always be a kid,” he said. “Even when I’m 50 and retired, I’ll still be the same person. But when it’s time to play, it’s time to play.”

He said he left Louisiana State after his junior year mainly because of college officiating and other college players. (He probably could have had the money after his sophomore year.) “The game was called really inconsistently, and I got tired of that,” he said. “And I felt there were guys trying to hurt me out there because they couldn’t stop me.”

To an extent, he had simply become too big for the college game. But as talented as he is, he spent five days at the legendary Pete Newell’s famed big-man’s camp. He tried to improve his footwork and his low-post moves and to diversify his game away from the basket.

“I think he stacks up with pretty much any center that’s come into the league in the last 30 or 40 years -- and before that, probably,” Newell said. “There’s an explosiveness to his game that’s sometimes awesome. ... He could have the best first step of any big man in basketball.”