Sunny Days Are Few and Far Between for This O’Neal

Only four spots separated Kobe Bryant and Jermaine O’Neal in the 1996 NBA draft.

They were two 17-year-olds who represented either an exciting pair of prospects or a disturbing trend of high school kids jumping to the pros, depending on who was talking at the moment.

Bryant, who was born Aug. 23, 1978, became the youngest player to take part in an NBA game when he debuted Nov. 3, 1997. A month later, O’Neal (born Oct. 13, 1978), took that distinction when he came back from an injury and played his first game.

That’s the last time their careers had anything to do with each other. The only thing hotter than Bryant over the last two years has been the stock market.

O’Neal plods along like a municipal bond.

Kobe has a slam dunk championship, an NBA all-star appearance, shoe and soft drink commercials, his own video game and has graced the covers of national magazines.

O’Neal had a seat on the Portland Trail Blazers’ bench for the first game of the playoffs Friday night.

He could only watch while Bryant played one of his better games of the season. Bryant didn’t do anything to make the highlight films, but he made good passes, didn’t drive through the lane with reckless abandon and came through when it mattered most by scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“Me and Kobe, people don’t realize we were really good friends before this,” O’Neal said. “Coming through high school, playing against each other in all-star games, we have a pretty good feel for each other. I’m real good friends with his family. When I come to L.A., I go over and have dinner with them.

“I never try to compare myself with him or something like that. I’m very happy for him and the success he’s had so far.”

O’Neal has actually started more games than Bryant this season, 9-1. But while Bryant has been able to force the Lakers to play him--sometimes taking minutes away from all-star guard Eddie Jones--O’Neal has been clogged by the depth of Portland’s forwards, stuck behind Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant.

Bryant’s 15.4 points per game was the highest scoring average for non-starters. O’Neal averaged 4.5.

O’Neal’s season has changed by the day. He has sat out entire games and started the next night. He took advantage of the playing time created because of an injury to Grant and averaged 15.2 points in five games, including a career-high 21 against Denver. But he reached double figures only once in his next 15 games and didn’t play at all in three of them.

“That’s the toughest part,” O’Neal said. “It’s hard to be consistent when your playing time is not real consistent.

“I’m young. I know my time is coming in the league when I’m going to be an everyday starter. Sometimes it’s tough, but you’ve got to stick with it.”

He tries not to compare his situation to Bryant’s.

“He’s here in L.A., I’m out in Portland,” O’Neal said. “People don’t know a lot about the Trail Blazers. Everybody knows about the Lakers and the history of the Lakers. But Kobe’s a great athlete. He’s in a unique situation. I guess his time is now.”

There’s a drawback to being in the spotlight, and Bryant found that out when he went into a slump after the all-star game.

O’Neal has the chance to work out his inconsistencies away from the national stage, without everyone waiting to second-guess his decision to enter the NBA draft out of Eau Claire High in Columbia, S.C.

“In Portland, I’m kind of in a unique situation,” O’Neal says. “Where when I’m doing good, the people are with me. When I’m doing bad, the people are with me, even when I make mistakes. That’s why I’m kind of happy I didn’t go to a big market like New York.”

Perhaps it’s better that the two players ended up where they did. Bryant is remarkably adept at handling all of the attention bestowed on him at such a young age.

O’Neal seems at ease at Portland, where his mother comes to visit from South Carolina once a month and his older brother and his cousin live with him. They keep his spirits up on those nights when he comes home and the only thing he has to show for his trip to the Rose Garden is a line in the box score that reads “Did Not Play--Coach’s Decision.”

He hasn’t seen the sun in two weeks.

“Portland is really gray and rainy,” O’Neal said. “It kind of wears on you. It’s tough to wake up to a rainy morning every morning. You look out the window as you’re sitting on the edge of your bed and it’s like, ‘Man. How can it rain every day?’ ”

Nevertheless, Portland is where he wants to be. He said he wants to work on a contract extension this summer so he can stay there.

He was standing by the team bus in the service entrance to the Forum now, standing in the same garage area where Magic and Shaq and the big stars park their cars. I asked if he could see himself on the Lakers, driving his car up that ramp after games, past the fans yelling his name.

He looked out to the ramp and at the blue sky above. For a moment, he allowed himself to trade places with Bryant. He smiled.

“It has to be great,” O’Neal said, “to wake up to a sunny morning every morning.”