THE OUTSIDER

Mike Penberthy could be mistaken for somebody called down from Section 313 to take a half-court shot at halftime for a Hyundai.

He’s slow, slightly built and went to a college few know exists. And he has an impossible blond cow lick that makes him look like he’s from Fresno.

Which he is.

No wonder his father rubbed his eyes during the Lakers’ game at Sacramento on Thursday. There was Mike, on the court with Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Horace Grant and Rick Fox.

“It was like watching Forrest Gump, like Mike was superimposed out there,” Mark Penberthy said. “I said to my wife, ‘This can’t be real. This can’t be our son.’ ”

Believe it, Ma. Penberthy, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound rookie guard, will be counted on to jump-start the offense off the bench, make three-pointers and do his best to get back on defense. In the three games since being activated from the injured list, his minutes have increased from nine to 17 to 19.

“What I like about Mike is the way he runs the offense,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “That’s key for us. He understands the offense and coordinates it well.”

Bryant calls him “Cousy.” O’Neal playfully squirts him with a water bottle when he doesn’t shoot enough. Chick Hearn says he is “by far” the best Laker outside shooter.

“I’ve fit in with the guys, and that makes it easier,” Penberthy said. “It’s great to be accepted on a championship team.”

His play against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday went a long way toward acceptance. He drilled a three-point shot the first time he had an open look, finished a fastbreak with a layup and fed a no-look pass to Bryant that resulted in a dunk.

“I know he can shoot, but I’m surprised he drove to the basket so aggressively,” Bryant said.

Penberthy had five assists, four rebounds and was on the floor when the Lakers pulled away late in the third quarter. He also missed five shots after making three and glanced anxiously at Jackson after each miss. The coach left him in the entire fourth quarter.

After making one of five against Sacramento on Thursday, Penberthy is five of 16 shooting. He has eight assists.

“His shooting will be there,” Jackson said. “He’s got a real good knowledge of the floor game and he can activate the offense by getting into the flow.”

The story of how Penberthy, 25, made the Lakers is three-sided. Besides the deft touch on three-pointers, he understands the triangle offense and won a three-man race for the last place on the roster.

In an upset.

Penberthy is from The Master’s College, a tiny NAIA school in Newhall. Since graduating in 1997, he played in a second-tier German league when not working in a Temecula warehouse or getting cut by CBA teams.

A quick study and a hoops wonk, Penberthy grasped the triangle relatively quickly because it is similar to his college offense. Master’s Coach Bill Oates is a disciple of John Wooden, whose high post-low post scheme is a progenitor of the triangle.

“That’s something I know how to do, get the guys to run the offense,” Penberthy said. “I know the spots on the floor, where everybody should be.

“Some of the cuts, some of the initiation points are similar to what we ran at Master’s, so that’s helped me. But if you just pay attention to what [Jackson] says, you’ll pick it up.”

Penberthy began studying for this opportunity as a child. His family moved to Fresno from Chicago, and he and his three brothers remained avid Bulls’ fans.

“I still watch tapes of those Bulls’ teams,” he said. “I just watch Ron Harper and those guys. Obviously they knew what to do. They won championships. So I just try to mimic them.”

Becoming a Bull was Penberthy’s goal out of Master’s, where he averaged 27.5 points as a senior. He was undrafted and attended an Indiana Pacer free-agent camp, primarily to prepare for a Bull camp the following week.

But he pulled a hamstring at the Pacer camp and that was that. Idaho took him in the second round of the CBA draft, waived him and he bolted for the Hamburg Tigers, a second-division German pro team.

He didn’t get another shot at the NBA until now, but he always believed in his ability.

“The Bulls were really high on me until I got hurt,” he said.

Jackson, of course, was the Bulls’ coach. And he didn’t forget Penberthy, who sharpened his skills and toughened his hide in Germany, where last season he made 42.9% of his three-point shots.

Penberthy needed the maturation. He was a gym rat whose world view had been cultivated at a Christian college so sheltered the baseball team was disbanded because players looked at a pornographic Internet site.

“The European game is real physical and they don’t give Americans any calls,” he said. “I played in seven different countries in two months. I came to appreciate America. And I learned to cope with travel and still put up big numbers.”

Between stints in Germany, Penberthy played in Venezuela and had a tryout with Quad City, another CBA team. He was cut after three weeks when he hurt an ankle.

Durability remains a question mark. During the exhibition season, Penberthy’s shoulder was sore and he was popped in the jaw during a game. Jackson nearly cut him because he wasn’t sound.

“I’m concerned about his ability to recover from blows,” Jackson said a few days before final cuts were made. “He got KO’d in the jaw. Up until that point, he’d been playing well enough to deserve a long look. Now I don’t think he’ll make the team.”

Jackson changed his mind. Veteran guard Emanual Davis, one of the players acquired from Seattle along with Grant, and rookie Cory Hightower were cut and Penberthy opened the season on the injured list.

“That was the best thing for me because I was tired and stressed,” he said. “I was able to see how things go on the road and feel the energy of the crowd. It was different than during the preseason.”

Laker fans warmed up to Penberthy quickly. He is as much a shameless gunner as a humble role player, and he exudes confidence on the court. When his teammates exhort him to take aim and fire, well, they are preaching to the choir.

“Guys on the bench are yelling at me to shoot,” he said. “When I’m open, I shouldn’t miss. There is always a place on a team for a shooter, and I’m a capable shooter.”

Penberthy is usually the last Laker to leave practice. He enjoys taking hundreds of jump shots in solitude. Then he heads home to Valencia and studies the triangle.

“I keep trying to get a better grasp of the concepts,” he said. “The movements and the cuts and the basics of the triangle are simple to understand. But the concepts [Jackson] uses to operate the offense are what you need to learn. There are so many you get confused. If you aren’t paying attention in the huddle, you’re in trouble.”

It’s one thing to understand the offense. Assistant coaches do that. It’s quite another to become a valuable addition to the defending NBA champions.

Penberthy is a long way from Fresno.

“Playing alongside Shaq and Kobe and the rest of these guys makes it easy,” he said. “It’s not that hard for me to do this kind of stuff. And it’s easy for me to enjoy it.”

*

* SHAQ OUT?

A sprained left ankle and sore Achilles’ tendon might keep Shaquille O’Neal out of the lineup when the Lakers play in Denver tonight. D9

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Penberthy File

* Born: Nov. 29, 1974

* Height: 6-3

* Weight: 185 pounds

* College: Finished four-year career (1993-97) at The Master’s College (Newhall) with a school-record 2,616 points.

* Lakers: Signed as a free agent after stints overseas and in CBA.

* By the numbers: Has played three games with Lakers, averaging 3.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists.