Flying Start Isn’t Exactly Best for Shaq

Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo stood barefoot, out of his size 22 sneakers. A basketball star for the Atlanta Hawks, he had hobbled off the floor while going one-on-one with Shaquille O’Neal of the Lakers on Friday night at the Great Western Forum.

Another NBA center, hurt.

Looking at his foot, Mutombo, who speaks many languages and has a degree in linguistics from Georgetown, explained that while the swelling had gone down, “I must wait to see it when I wake tomorrow morning. And if it is well, I will say, ‘Thank you.’

“Things have been happening to centers this year, yes? It is a difficult sport, especially at center. People do not realize how easy it is for us to be hurt. Because we are so large, they believe us indestructible.”

David Robinson last season, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning this season, O’Neal last and this season . . . injuries have nagged the league’s most physical of physical specimens.

“Nobody roots for Goliath,” Wilt Chamberlain once said.

Oh, yes, they do. They root for him in Inglewood, Atlanta, San Antonio, New York, Miami and anywhere else Goliath guards the hoop.

That is why Laker fans were so relieved to have Shaq back. The man with the Superman tattoo had missed 20 games, not counting the one from which he was banned for slapping an opponent, something Superman rarely did, even when Lex Luthor really got in his face.

All seven of L.A.’s losses had come with O’Neal unable to play. With him, the Lakers had looked strong, very strong, strong enough to go to Chicago this summer and take on Air Jordan and Rainbow Head.

Therefore, the last thing Laker fans needed to see Friday was the sight of Supercenter, flying.

Late in the game, O’Neal went after a loose ball. The ball sailed over the Laker players on the bench and into the aisle.

So did O’Neal.

If you haven’t seen a 7-foot-1, 300-pound man self-propelled, it is quite a sight. Without a cape, O’Neal flew over the Laker bench, past a bug-eyed Jon Barry, to the equal amazement of Sean Rooks and Elden Campbell, those sitting closest to him.

“Big load,” Barry said of Shaq’s fly-by. “I don’t know what he was thinking.”

I think he was thinking that it felt so good to be back in action, he would give it everything he had.

O’Neal usually does play hard. For a wide-bodied man with shoulders as broad as a Hummer, he can really move. Shaq takes pride in his mobility. He can run like a forward. He has taken martial-arts lessons from Billy Blanks. He is not some 7-foot clod with Herman Munster feet, who plods up and down the court. He’s nimble.

But go slowly, big man. Take it a little easy, at first. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn’t bust his hump on every play, but that’s probably why he lasted into his 40s, long enough to win several NBA titles. Save the loose-ball leaping for later, Shaq, when the games count for more.

“I bet he was looking forward to this too much,” Mutombo said.

An international spokesperson for CARE, whose goal in life is to have an audience with the Pope, this is Mutombo the care-giver talking.

“He [Shaq] is happy to be playing again. He sees Los Angeles is happy he is playing again. He wants to do very much, very soon. Myself, I would be the same, if I am out for so many games as Shaq has been. I would, perhaps, try too hard, too soon.”

O’Neal had a strained abdominal muscle. Some believe his carriage is too large for Shaq to carry the weight he does and play night after night the way he does, with legs churning and feet pounding. Goliath never ran at full speed. Goliath loped.

He played 24 minutes against Atlanta.

“He looked great!” teammate Eddie Jones enthused.

Yes, he did. He jammed, he scored 22, he blocked a couple, he did everything but keep his pregame promise to do a “Merton Hanks dance,” named after a San Francisco 49er player who celebrates big plays by doing a variation of Jim Carrey crossed with a funky chicken.

Laker guard Nick Van Exel said, “It felt weird having him out there. It’s been a while.”

That it has. Now, stay a while, big man. Be careful out there.