Lakers Cut Off at the Knee : You Can’t Help Missing Somebody This Large

On the night Louisiana State won at Florida to clinch a tie for the 1990-91 Southeastern Conference basketball championship, Shaquille O’Neal suffered a hairline fracture of his right leg. When he told Dale Brown he doubted he could play in the next game, the LSU coach replied, “That’s fine. . . . We don’t want to risk your pro career.”

Without O’Neal, the 20-7 Tigers lost their next game, to Mississippi State, and with it an outright SEC title. Without him, LSU then lost again, to Auburn, in the first round of the SEC tournament. And with Shaq limping up and down the court, LSU lost its first game of the NCAA tournament, to Connecticut, by 17 points.

There went the season.

I hope the Lakers are luckier, because Mr. Big just turned into the big hurt. Shaq’s no longer nimble. Shaq’s no longer quick. Shaq can’t even jump over a candlestick.

The man with “kneel” in his name can’t bend his leg. The man with the Superman tattoo on his arm is in pain. His left knee bone is cracked. A ligament is torn. Los Angeles has just lost the $120-Million Man until mid-April when his income tax is due, soonest. The Lakers could go to the NBA playoffs with no Shaq Daddy, no Vlade, no Magic, no prayer.

Now, hold on there, Mike Daddy (you say). Why can’t a Shaq-free team still win the NBA title?

Come on. Take a reality timeout.

Don’t delude yourself. Don’t let last week’s fluke over the Chicago Bulls fool you into thinking the impossible is possible. Don’t be fooled by the Lakers’ 132-point splash Thursday night at Denver, because once the playoffs begin, Houston, Utah, Seattle and Chicago ain’t no Denver, man. You might beat one. With luck, two. But take the title? Check, please.

With no Michael Jordan, the Bulls couldn’t do it. With no O’Neal this season, the Orlando Magic has disappeared. With no David Robinson this season, San Antonio has abandoned ship. And every time Hakeem Olajuwon or Charles Barkley sit out a game, the Houston Rockets transform overnight into the Vancouver Grizzlies.

The Lakers are still OK.

Elden Campbell can play center. Robert Horry and Jerome Kersey can play defense. Nick Van Exel and Kobe Bryant can play offense. Eddie Jones can play both. Travis Knight and Derek Fisher can keep growing up in a hurry. But keep in mind, a Laker team with Campbell, Jones, Van Exel, Vlade Divac and Magic Johnson in 1996 couldn’t even get past the first round.

If O’Neal’s out, so is L.A.

Orlando must be loving this. I mean, lovin’ it. Shaq’s injury has to be the best news Florida could get, short of hearing that Los Angeles had just been destroyed by lava from a volcano. Everybody you meet in Orlando today must be happy, including Sleepy, Grumpy and Dopey.

O’Neal’s knee is hurting.

“Hurtin’ like a son of a gun,” Shaq said, as he hobbled away Thursday.

He will sit out from two to three months. That means he won’t be coming to the March 23 “Wham, Bam, Thank You, Kazaam” party that the Magic’s fans have been planning for Shaq, ever since Jerry West rubbed a bottle and made three wishes.

That will be the only Laker visit to Orlando this season. I’m sure Shaq must have been looking forward to going back to Orlando, much like Tony Bennett looks back on San Francisco.

“I’ll be back,” Shaq reassured L.A. fans as he trudged off, doing his Terminator impersonation.

I guess we forget sometimes that even a body such as his is made of flesh and bone. Shaq usually seems indestructible. Opponents do everything but kung-fu him, and Shaq barely blinks. I suppose we became too accustomed to Divac flopping backward at the slightest brush, as though he had just been struck by an Amtrak locomotive. Good old Vlade, he fell down if Muggsy Bogues stepped on his shoelace.

I liked the Laker chances to win it all. Jordan is human himself. No fear did the Lakers show in their game at Chicago. No worry did the Lakers show at the Forum, where they gave Jordan a good tongue-depressant. L.A. has played da Bulls tougher than any team in da league.

Come back, Shaq. Come back.

If the Lakers and Clippers open the NBA playoffs against one another, their centers, O’Neal and Stanley Roberts, could be in street clothes. Shaq and Stan played at LSU together. Didn’t win any championships then, won’t now.