O’Bannon Eases Into a Very Different Role : Pro basketball: Former Bruin star is not putting up big numbers while “blending in,” but the Nets are confident they’re coming.

OK, when does the glamorous stuff start?

Ed O’Bannon, the NBA player, came home Tuesday. That was in the early hours of the morning when he and his New Jersey Net teammates flew in, having just been routed at Utah in an effort their coach said lacked some professionalism. Ed’s contribution was limited to 15 minutes and four shots, all misses.

Overall, O’Bannon is doing well, even if it hasn’t been the stuff of dreams wherein the Nets pictured him starting by now, averaging 20 points and taking his fast-living teammates out to toast wienies and marshmallows afterward.

“The savior part has to do with the type of person he is,” Coach Butch Beard said.

“I’ve told Ed, ‘You’ve got to be Ed, you can’t be anybody else but Ed. You be the guy that you were at UCLA and nothing will ever change. You’re not going to be able to save an organization. We all have to do that.’

“I don’t want that pressure put on him. That’s the reason I’m letting him develop at his own pace, because they are expecting a savior.”

The problem started last spring when O’Bannon scored 31 points, the most in the NCAA final in 17 years, kissed the floor, was awarded the outstanding player trophy, and called the injured Tyus Edney up to the podium to proclaim him “the real MVP.”

America fell in love with O’Bannon. When he dropped to the Nets at No. 9, northern Jersey rejoiced at this wholesome addition to its wild bunch.

O’Bannon, intending only to work on making the jump to the NBA, found everyone looking at him goo-goo-eyed.

“Everybody expected me to come out and change the image of the team and make everybody be these saints or something, that’s the way it seemed,” he said. “That’s not my style. That’s not what I was there for.

“I’m there to help the team win. I’m not there to stop the guys from doing whatever bad habits anybody had. . . .

“That was Coach’s plan, blend in, slowly get involved in things. Hopefully, I’m doing that. I’m trying. The team is going pretty well right now. We lost last night but at the same time we’re improving. . . .

“It’s a huge difference because you’re used to doing things [read: scoring] for your team at the college level. But now they don’t really need that from you because they’ve got three or four other guys who can do the same things.

“It’s really different. But at the same time it’s a learning experience and something that you have to go through. It’s something I have to go through, and I’m enjoying it, to be honest with you.”

Last week, O’Bannon said he thought he had overly blended and vowed to step up his own pace. In a victory at Philadelphia, he took the ball off rookie phenom Jerry Stackhouse twice and jammed both times, including a thundering throw-down over 7-foot-6 Shawn Bradley that the Nets are still talking about.

The next game was the downer against the Jazz, but that’s how it goes in this league.

“His outside shot is coming,” Beard said. “That’s where he needed to work early on. He’s started to work on it more and more.

“But hey, it’s a blessing for us. He’s good people, comes from a good program, good family. It’s going to mean everything in the world to this organization--in the long run. Not right away. Not short term, OK?”

Home at last! The Nets will play the Clippers tonight, and O’Bannon has already had a home-cooked meal.

Of course, his brother, Charles, is in Hawaii. Ed was so fired up for the start of the Bruins’ season, he wore his UCLA shorts under his clothes Monday, the day of their game against Santa Clara.

He says he’ll wear the shorts again before their next game, but he’ll turn them inside-out.