THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Why Is Everyone Attacking Shaq?

He can’t shoot free throws, he doesn’t work on his game, he simply drops in between movies and CDs, he has no moves, no shot, no clue. . . .

Is this Shaquille O’Neal they are talking about?

The 22-year-old who’s No. 1 in the league in scoring, No. 2 in rebounding, No. 2 in shooting percentage and No. 6 in blocks?

O’Neal is suddenly up to his eyebrows in Shaq-bashers--opposing players, writers, those who should know better. In a recent Sports Illustrated poll, 12 of 21 coaches picked someone else to start a franchise around.

One coach who picked Alonzo Mourning called O’Neal “a part-time basketball player.”

This merely proves what we have always known: There are a lot of coaches in the wrong business.

O’Neal works as hard as any prodigy ever has. Derrick Coleman and Larry Johnson, the top picks the two years before O’Neal, didn’t sign until after the season started, nor did Mourning, nominated by Hornet officials as the center with the ideal attitude. O’Neal agreed to terms with the Orlando Magic in midsummer and went to Pete Newell’s big man’s camp.

He went back last summer. As raw as he is, he has shots and moves he didn’t have as a rookie. His assists are up 42%. Part of the bashing is herd mentality--if everyone’s saying it, there must be something to it. Part is his peers’ natural resentment--he has so much. Part is his immaturity--if they are going to carp, I’m going to brag.

There is no doubt he has been overexposed, the Jordan phenomenon multiplied by 1,000. Jordan went almost 10 years before his endorsement income passed $10 million; O’Neal hit $15 million as a rookie.

Jordan never made a movie. O’Neal got star billing in his, with ads that ran everywhere, the latest drops in a water torture of his fellows.

“It blows my mind, I get so many Shaq questions,” says Mr. Nice Guy, David Robinson. “About his feelings, that he’s upset about calls, that he doesn’t like this or that.

“Who is Shaq? Why should I lose sleep that he’s upset? It’s funny to me (that) everyone plays to him so much. He’s a good player, no question. He’s athletic, 300 pounds, a phenomenon. He gets credit for how good he is, but it blows my mind how people are concerned how he feels neglected.”

When the Magic lost last week at San Antonio, Spur players jumped in Shaq’s face to rub it in.

“I said, ‘Who played like the MVP today, you or David (Robinson)?” Willie Anderson said. “That ticked him off.”

Actually, O’Neal had held his own: 32 points and 11 rebounds to Robinson’s 36-13.

Ironically, Shaq is a polite young man with great respect for his elders and so soft-spoken, he used to whisper through interviews.

However, he did about 10,000 commercials that bragged for him. Remember the one in which Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and John Wooden welcomed him into their inner circle? How do you think Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing felt about that one?

At 21, he dictated his life story, breaking a longstanding tradition: Have the life, then write the story.

As recently as All-Star weekend, O’Neal was pretending the resentment directed toward him was media hype. He changed his tune when the West players jumped all over him, after which he vowed to get them, “one by one.”

Said O’Neal after the San Antonio loss: “Jealousy is the ugliest word in the dictionary. I can do a whole bunch of things. Every time I do something, I do it well. My movie’s doing well. My album will be platinum soon. . . .

“I’m the best at what I do. I’m just a man of many talents. People don’t understand that.”

Doesn’t look like we can put him down as humble anymore, does it?

Of course, there aren’t that many leading-man roles for seven-footers and, whereas singing requires vocal talent, rapping can be done with only a microphone.

O’Neal has to grow up in the harsh spotlight of fame, but one way or another, he’s happening.

Now he has three peers. In two years, they will be playing for second place.

NOT SO GOLDEN STATE

Don Nelson, the NBA’s only three-time coach of the year, is becoming more disenchanted by the day.

The problem: No matter what he has lost, no one else is likely to cut him the deal he has as Golden State’s coach, general manager and part owner of a $100-million franchise.

Nelson, once the program, is now an employee under Dan Finnane, installed as president by Nelson’s sponsor, owner Jim Fitzgerald, after Nelson’s expensive search for the elusive big man (Ralph Sampson, Jim Peterson, Alton Lister).

For whatever reason, Nelson now trumpets his game plans, like the one he dreamed up at Portland when Chris Webber was sidelined, with Billy Owens at center.

“That was our ace in the hole,” Nelson said. “If (Owens) could have come up with a Magic Johnson-type of performance and we could have posted him and run the offense through him and he could have done all those things, we could have just given them fits. But obviously, he wasn’t up to the task.”

That was the greatest compliment anyone had ever paid Owens. The Warriors lost by 29.

The young Warriors don’t work as hard as Nelson’s beloved Chris Mullin-Tim Hardaway-Mitch Richmond club and get upset when their coach yells at them. After a report that an argument with Webber during a game at Charlotte had strained the relationship, Nelson complained about “a leak in our locker room.” Writers’ access on days off was whittled to a 15-minute period after practice.

Next season, the Warriors get Hardaway and Sarunas Marciulionis back. Imagine the possibilities, if they last until then.

IT’S OK, MIKEY

Loved that Sports Illustrated shot at Michael Jordan for embarrassing baseball. You would have thought a game with Marge Schott, George Steinbrenner, Jose Canseco and no commissioner would be beyond embarrassment.

Jordan is only embarrassing himself, so if he can take it, where’s the harm?

Certainly not to baseball. Here’s the world’s greatest athlete falling on his face, making the game look like an art form instead of a discipline built on hand-eye coordination, in which a fat man who smokes cigarettes can hit .300.

What ticks off baseball people is that a basketball player’s lark is the No. 1 story in spring training, tangible proof he’s more famous than any baseball star.

FACES AND FIGURES

I would feel a lot better about that Laker rebuilding program if Doug Christie and Anthony Peeler ever played. Right now, their seasons are virtual write-offs. Peeler showed less as a sophomore than as a rookie and is still sidelined. Christie, their best prospect, is No. 4 guard and No. 4 forward.

It’s getting hot out there in GM land: The Bulls’ closed-mouthed Jerry Krause, who normally refuses to appear on talk shows, called one from his car when he heard himself being criticized for missing out on Jeff Hornacek. The host then asked Krause about it. Krause said he couldn’t talk about it. . . . Boston’s Dave Gavitt called a news conference to answer a Boston Globe story that he didn’t work at his job. He held the session up for 45 minutes when the writer, Jackie McMullan, was caught in traffic. . . . Bullet owner Abe Pollin took out a quarter-page ad in two Washington papers to rebut Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon’s criticism of USAir Arena. Pollin said Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium and Richfield Coliseum were all worse, unfortunately picking three stadiums that are being replaced.

These guys again? The Jazz won 10 in a row after a first-half swan dive that had Karl Malone criticizing everything, including the music on the public-address system--”We’re from Utah, so we can’t play any hard-core stuff. Why can’t we be jamming like everyone else?”--and suggesting he be traded to a real contender, as Charles Barkley was. . . . Houston Coach Rudy Tomjanovich, singing the blues after his division rival landed Hornacek: “If you look at the perfect player for their team, he’s it. He’s going to space the floor and open things up for that big guy.” . . . Jeff Malone, no relation and no friend to Karl, after his exile to Philadelphia in the Hornacek deal: “They made their move and I guess Karl was happy about it. I look forward to them being in the finals. If they don’t get there, come back to me and we’ll talk about it.”

Merely their little way of welcoming him to the Eastern Conference: The Knicks roughed up Danny Manning in their showdown elbow-a-thon at Atlanta last week, held him to 13 points and trimmed the Hawks’ lead to one game. “They’re going to miss Dominique (Wilkins) a little bit,” Pat Riley said afterward. . . . Said Isiah Thomas: “Danny’s a great player, but ‘Nique can mess around and get 40.”

Where have all the Clippers gone, continued: Charles Smith says he and Manning were ecstatic to leave, but Smith’s current situation could be better. He lost his starting job, says his arthroscopically repaired knee hurts again and is often booed in Madison Square Garden. “I hear it, but I can’t let it bother me,” he said. “The crowd isn’t going to get on Patrick, John (Starks) or Oak (Charles Oakley) so when things go wrong, it comes in my direction.”

He’s the czar of more than the telestrator: The Bulls committed a costly backcourt violation in their loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, failing to realize that they had only six seconds to cross midcourt after a timeout. Said Cleveland Coach Mike Fratello: “I’ve mentioned a number of times we have a very intelligent team. Those guys realized that. They went out and extended the defense and did it in a way that was subtle enough. They didn’t announce it or pull any alarms. They subtly got out there on their own and extended the pressure.” Actually, none of Fratello’s players knew there were only six seconds left. “We had no idea,” Mark Price said. Added Gerald Wilkins: “I was wondering what the call was.”