Wilt Had a Big Effect on Shaq

One generation’s giant saluted another on Tuesday.

Shaquille O’Neal, who had a few verbal sparring sessions with Wilt Chamberlain in recent years, was subdued and thoughtful after hearing of Chamberlain’s death.

“It’s very shocking,” O’Neal said after the Lakers’ exhibition game against the Washington Wizards had been canceled because of structural problems at the new Alltel Arena. “My thoughts and hopes are with his family, first of all.

“Thanks to guys like Wilt and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and Hakeem [Olajuwon], I am who I am today. Those are the big guys who paved the way.”

Asked about their back-and-forth, which alternated between jests and cutting comments, O’Neal said he knew that Chamberlain was only trying to prod him to become a better player.

The two huge men understood each other, O’Neal said, even though they never got a chance to spend much time together.

“I know he didn’t dislike me,” O’Neal said. “And I didn’t dislike him. What went on was more fun than anything.

“I met him a couple times. I wish we would’ve had the chance to sit down. . . . I wish he could’ve shown me some of his tricks. Kareem showed me some of his tricks, Hakeem showed me some of his. . . .

“When I was first coming up, my father always said, ‘Be like Wilt, be like Kareem, be like Hakeem.’

“That’s why I am who I am today. It’s because I had people to look up to. I wasn’t going to be able to be like a guard, so whatever [the big men] did, whatever standards they set, I wanted to try to do it and try to beat it.”

And O’Neal said that he can identify with Chamberlain’s career--struggling through many years of huge individual statistics and a reputation for selfishness before maturing and flourishing with the Lakers.

“At first, you go in and you try and get your numbers and do your thing,” O’Neal said. “But later in your career, you realize that championships are more important.

“He realized that later in his career. And I’m realizing that now in my career too.”

Longtime Laker broadcaster Chick Hearn said he was “in total shock” and that he had “lost a great friend.”

“He was a monster of a man, but one who had fun,” Hearn said. “If he liked you, you were very fortunate. He liked me and I liked him, we were close to each other and saw each other a great deal. You had to know him to know what a nice guy he was. . . .

“He changed the Lakers, because they’d never had a big man of that consequence. He immediately came over with his power and his strength. But he was an individual player for a long time. He wanted the ball, he wanted to shoot the ball.

“And he cut into the shooting of [Jerry] West and [Elgin] Baylor and some of the other Laker stars. They had to learn to play with him and he had to learn to play with them. And he did that.”

Before Chamberlain joined West and Baylor, when he was breaking every NBA record possible, Hearn said that the Lakers knew how good Chamberlain was.

“I saw him one night break Elgin Baylor’s [single-game scoring] record, which was 72 for a game, and Wilt made 78 that night,” Hearn said.

“So I said to Elgin Baylor after the game, ‘It was three overtimes. That gives him an extra 15 minutes of time. He ought to have an asterisk beside the mark.’

“And Baylor said to me, ‘Don’t worry about it. One day the big guy will break a hundred.’ Two months later, he made a hundred.”

Laker Coach Phil Jackson said he vividly remembers his first several games against Chamberlain, the man Jackson said forever changed the way the game is played.

“When I was a rookie, I blocked one of his dipsy-do shots,” Jackson said. “And someone told me, ‘You know, you just made a big mistake. He’s got a memory like an elephant. He won’t forget that.’

“And indeed, the rest of the season, he goaltended every shot I took--if he didn’t block it. He just hated to be embarrassed.

“He was a sleeping giant a lot of times. . . . He’d just go through the game. But if you got him angry, or if something happened in the game that got him going, he got himself playing with a fury that was incredible.”