Shaq Has a Chance to End a Bad Rap

He has spent years trying to be an original, taking pride in the pursuit, developing occupations that go with the personality. He has guaranteed along the way that he will never be one of many, at least until someone organizes a convention for 7-foot-1, 320-pound actors/rappers/basketball superstars. But now there is no doubt. He wants to be part of the crowd.

Never has Shaquille O’Neal so wanted it. His first NBA title would be one of many for the Lakers, the franchise that doesn’t even hang conference banners on the Forum wall and probably uses those from division titles as dish towels. That’s why he came here.

To follow Mikan.

And Chamberlain.

And Abdul-Jabbar.

Winning a championship won’t set O’Neal apart as a Laker center. He is aware of that because part of the lure of becoming a Laker was to join the tradition, a considerable change of thinking from previous years in college and the pros, when he liked the idea of setting standards. Now, he wants to maintain them.

The pursuit begins tonight at the Forum, where the Lakers face the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of their best-of-five series. Only the season and his reputation hang in the balance.

The season, because the Lakers, while patient enough from the start to not declare this a title-or-bust campaign, would consider a first-round dismissal a huge disappointment, even if the opponent had won three of four regular-season meetings.

His reputation, because O’Neal has proved he can lead a team to 60 wins in the regular season. To cement his role in history, he will at some point need to lead one to 15 victories in the postseason.

So this is where he will be judged--the playoffs, this year and in all that follow.

“Always,” O’Neal said Thursday at the Forum after the Lakers went through their final practice.

“I just have to deal with it. It’s that easy.”

It doesn’t help that his Orlando Magic were swept out in each of the last three years--by the Chicago Bulls last season in the Eastern Conference finals, by the Houston Rockets in the 1995 championship series, and by the Indiana Pacers in the first round in ’94. With that, it’s easy for critics to forget that he averaged 28 points and 12.5 rebounds and shot 59.5% against Hakeem Olajuwon in the one trip to the brink.

“I’m getting there,” he said. “Just taking my steps. A lot of great players had to take steps. Maybe not Magic [Johnson].

“Is there any pressure? No. I don’t believe in pressure. If I set high expectations for myself, the expectations you guys [the media] set don’t even matter.

“It took the great Michael [Jordan]--how many?--seven years. It took the excellent Hakeem 10 years. Hopefully, it won’t be that long.

“I’ll get there one day. Before I leave this game, I will get there.”

O’Neal began 1996-97 having averaged 27.2 points and 12.5 points with the Magic in four regular seasons and 25.3 points and 11.4 rebounds in three trips, 36 games in all, to the playoffs, even though he played about a minute more per postseason contest. His field-goal percentage was about the same--58.1% in the regular season, 58.3% in the playoffs--but his free-throw accuracy, always under the microscope, dropped from 54.6% to 51.1%.

He is not alone in this regard. David Robinson has had a similar scoring decline when the stakes went up. Olajuwon’s scoring increases 3 1/2 points a game, but his rebounding drops slightly. Patrick Ewing has drops in scoring but improvement on the boards.

Still, O’Neal comes to his first run as a Laker with everything to prove in this regard, not that answering numerous critics will be his sole motivation. The bigger part might be the other group.

Abdul-Jabbar. Chamberlain. Mikan.

“It’s very exciting,” O’Neal said on the eve of the initial quest. “This is the opportunity, the chance to get to the big dance. Talk about taking steps. These are the first steps.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Schedule

LAKERS vs. TRAIL BLAZERS

* Game 1: Tonight at Forum, 7:30

* Game 2: Sunday at Forum, noon

* Game 3: Wednesday at Portland, 7:30

* Game 4: May 2 at Portland, TBA*

* Game 5: May 4 at Forum, TBA*

* if necessary