A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: “NBA Under Pressure” videotape

Price: $14.95

A bona fide star in the NBA is more often measured by when he scores rather than how many. The superstars are the clutch players, the ones who come through under pressure. NBA Entertainment

and USA Home Entertainment have put together an excellent 50-minute videotape chronicling some of the game’s greatest pressure players and their shining moments, times when seasons and even careers are often decided. The host, appropriately, is “Big Game” James Worthy.

Worthy’s biggest game came in Game 7 of the 1988 NBA finals, when his first career triple-double helped the Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons.

Jerry West, who once made a 63-foot shot against the New York Knicks in the NBA finals and was known as Mr. Clutch, has this to say about playing under pressure: “When you’ve done it before, people expect it.”

Reggie Miller says, “Everyone knows where the ball is going to end up.”

There is plenty of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the video, with the emphasis on Johnson. There is a segment on the hook shot he made to beat Bird and the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the 1987 finals. “I always dreamed of beating the Celtics with a shot like that,” Magic says. “It was the most special moment for me and the greatest shot I’ve ever taken.”

Bird still had two seconds to get off a shot, and his bomb rimmed out. “I thought it was in,” he says.

There is a segment on Kobe Bryant and his three air balls in a loss to Utah that eliminated the Lakers from the playoffs. It showed he felt the pressure, but it also showed he was willing to take the fate of the Lakers in his hands.

There is a segment on free-throw shooting, and, yes, there are a few Shaquille O’Neal bricks included. So are the four consecutive misses by Orlando’s Nick Anderson, a good free-throw shooter, that cost the Magic Game 1 of the 1995 NBA finals against Houston.

But there is more emphasis on the positive, particular Rick Barry’s free-throw shooting prowess. Unfortunately, Bill Sharman, one of the greatest free-throw shooters, is forgotten again. Producers often use as an excuse that Sharman has been unable to talk since he lost his voice while coaching the Lakers in the early 1970s. Well, he can talk, just not real well.

Others featured in the tape include John Stockton, Jason Williams and Allan Houston.

Saving the best for last, the final segment is on Michael Jordan, who not only scored points in bunches but also came through under pressure.