Very Happy Campers Go One-on-One With Shaq

The kids heard him before they ever saw him. “Boom, boom, boom, boom . . .” The thunderous thump of a rap song beat in the distance.

“It’s him, it’s him,” screamed a dozen boys on the basketball courts of Cal Lutheran University before breaking into a frenzied run.

A silver Lincoln Navigator--the number 34 and Superman’s “S” mounted on its chromed front grill--came into view and slowed to a stop.

As the rumbling rap music died, a car door swung open and out stepped the NBA’s most valuable player and the most adored athlete for many a 12-year-old boy.

“Shaq! Over here, Shaq!” the kids shouted, pushing and shoving their way forward in a desperate effort to touch the massive arm of the Lakers great.

It was the final day for Slam Basketball Camp, Shaquille O’Neal’s new summer camp created to help boys ages 8 to 17 hone their basketball skills during a five-day, intensive training program.

Most of the kids were there to play, sure.

Of course they love the game, any of them will tell you.

But the No. 1 reason most begged their parents to cough up the $525 sign-up fee?

“Shaq,” said 15-year-old Adrian Buencamino. “I wanted to meet Shaq. He’s awesome.”

And meet O’Neal they did.

Each of the nearly 300 star-struck campers took turns standing next to the basketball giant, his recently awarded MVP trophy at his side, for a picture.

He talked to some of the kids.

Others were lucky enough to play a little b-ball with the star center.

And to all, he had a piece of advice.

“I tell them, ‘Don’t do what I do,” said O’Neal, sweat pouring down his face after playing a few rounds under the net. “I say, ‘Be better than what I do.’ ”

O’Neal said he started the camp along with partner Brad Ceisler in hopes of cultivating even better players for the next generation of basketball greats.

“These kids are the future of this game,” said O’Neal during a break in the action.

“When I was a kid, I just thought, ‘I’ve got to be better than Dr. J, I’ve got to be better than Earvin [Magic Johnson]. It’s hard, but these kids are working hard to make the game better. And it’ll be an even better game to watch some day.”

At least that was the hope of every young man on the court Thursday.

They came with a basketball in their hands and dreams of glory in their eyes.

Referring to the MVP trophy at O’Neal’s side, Buencamino--sent to the camp by his neighborhood Boys & Girls Club in Santa Clarita--said his goal was simple: “I’m going to get one of those when I grow up.”

The training is intense, campers say.

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The day starts with breakfast, followed by a series of clinics with tips for better passing, shooting and dribbling.

Then the boys break into teams and play as many as three games before lunch.

A motivational lecture follows, and another round of games. Dinner. Then yet another game of hoops.

“By the end of the day,” said Terry Rubinroit, a Malibu mother who signed up her 9- and 8-year-old sons for the camp, “I have to take a spatula, scrape them off the floor, put them in the shower and drop them in bed. In the morning they’re bleary eyed, but begging for more.”

And if O’Neal hadn’t quite reached hero status before the camp, he certainly sealed himself in the hearts of a couple of campers in particular.

Jonathan Perez, 12, of Ventura sat on the sidelines for most of the action, a cast on his left leg.

Jonathan and his siblings were late for the last day of school last week when their Toyota 4Runner was clipped by a dump truck.

The Toyota spun into a telephone pole, killing Jonathan’s mother and sending her fiance into a coma. Jonathan and his siblings suffered only moderate injuries.

On hearing about Jonathan’s tragedy, O’Neal pulled the boy from the crowd and asked how he was coping.

He gave the boy a ride in the now-famous Lincoln--with the license plates “MNOVSTL” (Man of Steel)--and promised to treat him to his own laptop computer.

“That was amazing,” said Jonathan, who attended the camp just long enough to meet the superstar. “I was so nervous. But when he asked about my cast, I knew he was a real nice person.”

O’Neal also took time to commiserate with Michael Clark, a 6-foot-6 15-year-old who struggles to find shoes to fit his size 20 feet.

O’Neal, who wears a size 22, said he would send Clark a pair of custom-made sneakers, and a dozen or so shoes from his personal closet.

“I remember it was hard on my parents finding me shoes when I was a kid,” O’Neal said later. “But that’s just part of our job here. We want to put a smile of the faces of these kids.”

The camp was also an opportunity for the athlete-actor-entrepreneur to promote his new company, Dunk.net, an Internet start-up offering athletic apparel.

Every camper received three Dunk.net T-shirts and a pair of tennis shoes.

The kids were proud to wear the new garb--anything to get themselves closer to O’Neal, still fresh from the Laker’s championship victory last week at Staples Center.

Even mothers there to watch their sons couldn’t hide their excitement when O’Neal stepped onto the court.

Some pushed their boys forward, coaxing them to stand close enough for a Kodak moment.

And even as camp coaches were busy pushing back the swarm of kids anxious to surround O’Neal, a few parents inched closer themselves, interested in getting their own snapshot with the hoopster.

O’Neal took the attention in stride, reaching out to muss the hair of as many kids as possible, leaving it to his handlers to be the bad guys ordering the crowd to back up.

O’Neal said he hopes to continue the camp each year, taking up where Magic Johnson’s now defunct basketball camp left off.

But he wants to expand the summer sessions beyond offering just hoop lessons, setting up classes for computer training and acting.

“Whatever the kids might be interested in,” O’Neal said. “I want to make this sort of like a tech camp or a mini college.”

But for the current round of campers, there is no question where their main interest lies.

At the end of each night, the future NBA hopefuls went to bed blistered, bruised, exhausted--and ready for more.

“Good,” O’Neal said. “Then my plan is working.”