Shaq’s Signing Spurs Corporate Response

Just hours after Shaquille O’Neal signed a $120 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, promoters and sponsors introduced themselves.

Full page advertisements touting his new genie-in-a-boom-box movie--”Kazaam”--were strategically laced through newspaper sports pages, while Reebok used a full page spread to say “attaboy.”

O’Neal heads west--with a huge corporate entourage in tow--but he’ll have to be careful in the bigger, more visible and ballyhooed market that is LaLaLand.

“Shaq doesn’t face any more of an image problem than Sylvester Stallone making millions for a movie,” sports lawyer Tom Reich said. “L.A.’s a start-driven town, and the fans are really excited. He has a magnetic personality to go along with ability.”

Corporate sponsors are scrambling to profit off this attractiveness--on the court and at the cinema.

Among those promoting “Kazaam” are Neilson Cadbury, which will feature a movie identification flash on all its candy bar boxes from July through August, and Payless Shoes, which will put up “Kazaam” posters in its thousands of stores nationwide.

Whether Angelenos tire of seeing O’Neal’s face everywhere will depend on his performance, analysts say.

“You think there’s overexposure of Michael Jordan?” Reich asked. “No. Success doesn’t translate into overexposure. Failure does.”

That’s the key.

“Jordan may be the most exposed athlete in the world, but look at how many championship rings he’s won,” Newport Beach-based sports agent Leigh Steinberg said. “L.A. will want quick and rapid stardom from Shaq, and they’re not likely to have an unending amount of patience.”

“I think there might be some backlash against the Lakers for the amount of money Shaq’s being paid,” sports lawyer Richard Moss said. “It might seem unseemly for a basketball player to be making $120 million when teachers and government workers are being paid what they’re being paid.”

Not long before the deal was announced, the Lakers boosted ticket prices for the cheapest seats in the upcoming season from $9.50 to $21, and from $500 to $600 for courtside seats.

Team officials have said the prices weren’t raised because of O’Neal, but it won’t hurt when it comes time to pay the bills.

Some analysts suggested O’Neal’s salary may be a potential trap.

His deal is the most lucrative total package in team sports history and the second this summer to exceed $100 million. Michael Jordan’s contract signed last week with the Chicago Bulls is the largest one-year deal--$25 million to $30 million.

“Because this guy’s getting so much money, public expectation will be sky-high,” said Michael Levine, president of Levine Communications, a firm in Beverly Hills that represents celebrities.

“It’ll be difficult for him to consistently measure up to that,” he said.

While it’s always dangerous when a player’s endorsement profile is higher than his reputation on the basketball court, there’s no denying the benefits O’Neal will reap--on and off the court.

“L.A.’s the center of the entertainment industry. The amount of national profile that’ll come to him is staggering,” Steinberg said. “Even though he’s already a major sports figure, playing here offers him the chance . . . to become a household name.”

Indeed, O’Neal is fast on his way to becoming much bigger than that as he prepares to release his third rap album and gears up for work on his third movie.

And if he performs well on court and knows how to connect with his fans--such as being gracious about signing autographs--then it’s unlikely the public will tire of him any time soon.