Shaq's Max

By TIM BROWN

Oct. 14, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Shaquille O’Neal took his money--a three-year, $88.4-million contract extension that will keep him a Laker through 2006--on Friday afternoon while wearing Bermuda shorts and moccasins, his gleaming Rolls-Royce parked out back and a rookie waiting to help him go pick out Rolex watches for his teammates.

He took his money while owner Jerry Buss wore gag sunglasses with Superman logos on the lenses, and as General Manager Mitch Kupchak called it one of the best days in the history of an organization already flush with good ones.

He took his money as the latest in a now generation-long lineage of superstars whose games, personalities and contracts defined the new NBA, beginning with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, through Michael Jordan, and on to Shaq.

Finally, he took it in the face of mounting suspicion that the Lakers might not spend with the NBA’s new-breed hobbyists, owners whose vast economic resources are surpassed only by the spare time in which they have to spend it.

O’Neal, whose initial seven-year, $120-million deal with the Lakers runs through the 2002-03 season, signed the maximum allowable extension under the basic agreement, both in terms of years and dollars. He is due $26.5 million in 2003-04, $29.5 million in 2004-05 and $32.4 million in 2005-06. The extension contains an out clause after the contract’s second year, at O’Neal’s option.

“He’s always been a man of his word,” O’Neal said of Buss. “He said he was going to give me a deal. He’s always been very honest. He’s always been very up front with me. We have a very special relationship.”

Coach Phil Jackson revved the engine of his convertible Porsche in the parking lot, rolled down a window and asked what had caused the media to assemble outside the training facility. Told of the announcement of O’Neal’s extension, he grinned, said, “I want my contract tied to his,” laughed and roared off.

Twenty-one years ago, Buss bought the franchise for $16 million, or about half a season’s worth of O’Neal by the final year of the contract. With the Superman sunglasses on the table in front of him, Buss only smiled at the enormity of the contract and said he was glad to pay it. He was asked if the commitment to O’Neal would have an adverse impact on future financial decisions, particularly with regard to payroll and the NBA’s coming dollar-for-dollar luxury tax.

“Well, for a few years it could get tough,” he said. “It really depends on what free agents become available. It’s hard to speculate what would happen. If your question is intended to [ask] will we get the best team available, the answer is yes.”

O’Neal said he hadn’t considered that this contract--second only to Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett’s in average annual value--might someday curb the quality of the players Buss could put around him.

“Am I concerned? I really wasn’t thinking about it,” he said. “We have a pretty good team. We have the combo [with Kobe Bryant]. A team with two dominant superstars really doesn’t need any more superstars. We just need a lot of great role players, and we have that now. We have the best team on paper.”

Thirty minutes before, O’Neal had been in Buss’ second-story office in El Segundo. He stood behind Buss’ six NBA championship trophies and spread his arms, his enormous wingspan reaching from the golden basketball of the first trophy to the golden basketball of the last.

“Winning championship trophies is like having one car,” O’Neal said, flashing a smile. “It’s not enough for me.”

Six months ago, on that same ledge, there were five trophies.

O’Neal hadn’t yet become the most valuable player of the league or the playoffs. He was becoming better known for his teams’ playoff flameouts than for his game, though there was no mightier player--statistically or otherwise--in the NBA.

He was haunted by postseason comparisons to Wilt Chamberlain, the most powerful center of his era, who didn’t win a championship until late in his career. People laughed at his free-throw shooting, the unrefined part of his game that drew further parallels with Chamberlain.

“Chamberlain was looked at a certain way,” Jackson said this week. “Then he got two championships and it made a difference with how he went out as a player. That’s the difference with guys who are as dominant as they are.”

In his career, Chamberlain had Bill Russell to bear. Shaq has had others, the singular Jordan among them. But mostly it was the expectations that crowded him. The basketball seasons fell away, and the playoff exits mounted and he talked of nearing 30--even at 28.

Then, suddenly, Jackson arrived and the Portland Trail Blazers could not hold a 15-point fourth-quarter lead and Indiana had no answer for Shaq. O’Neal sat and wept at the sight of the trophy, at a floor six inches thick in confetti, at Bryant hanging off him like a human bow tie, at a career’s reputation changing right before him.

“Everything fell in place,” he said. “I think it was meant to be for me, because I failed so many times at it. It was just my time. Every player, every person has his turn, and it was just my turn.

“It takes a lot to make me laugh. It takes a lot to make me cry. I just didn’t want to be in that category of: ‘He’s a great player but he never won.’ Like [Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone, guys like that. They’re great players even though they haven’t won. But I never wanted to be looked upon like that. I wanted people to say, ‘Shaq’s bad, and, oh yeah, he’s one of only three people to get an MVP three times in one season [All-Star game, finals, league]. Shaq could play.’

“You saw the tears. They were tears of ‘Now what?’ They were not really tears of joy. Because it’s not over.”

Former Louisiana State Coach Dale Brown said he saw a transformation that championship night. It was the expression in O’Neal’s face, so boyish and soft. He sees it still. Something is there that wasn’t there before.

“There was a peacefulness and a happiness,” said Brown, “Daddy Dale” to O’Neal. “I think now he has peace that he can step away from basketball at any time. I feel a peacefulness in him.”

O’Neal said he has merely grown up.

“I’m just much older now,” he said. “I’m 28. Got two kids. About to be 30. I’m really starting to think about life after basketball. Back then I was young, had a lot of opportunities, doing a lot of things. Now I’m just chillin’ out. I’m kind of at peace. I finally got the type of coach I wanted, that I’d been asking for my whole career. I respect authority. When I get around an authority figure, I do the right thing.”

If the championship changed him, it is because he no longer fears that hollow legacy.

So when he speaks of this season, it is not about defending the title. It is about winning another. He considers himself a champion, and his teammates champions, forever. It is the same sentiment that moves people to call Muhammad Ali “Champ,” even today.

“If we were a team that wasn’t supposed to win, we would be defending it,” he said. “People say, ‘Oh, teams are going to be gunning for you.’ They’ve been gunning at me ever since ‘92, ever since I came into the league. Patrick Ewing’s been gunning for me. All teams have been wanting to beat Shaq O’Neal and whatever team he’s playing for. So, for me, it’s just going to be the same thing.

“Am I a different player? To me, no. I’ve been putting up the same numbers. I’ve been shooting the same percentage. For me, though, I’ve always had ‘buts’ thrown in there. My second year, when I came into the league and dominated, it was, ‘He’s a great player, but we’re going to give the MVP to David Robinson.’ ‘Shaq’s a great player, but he’s too young.’ ‘Shaq’s a great player, but he’s doing too many rap albums.’ On and on. I’ve been doing the same things since I came in.”

He sat with friends this week in a Memphis restaurant. He mauled two chicken sandwiches. Between bites, he considered the basketball that got him there, the father who drove him, and what might be ahead. It is likely that more of his career is behind him than ahead of him, a notion that stirred him to restlessness.

“I’m not happy with my career yet,” he said. “One ring is good. But we’ll get the ring on Nov. 1. I’ll look at it a couple times, then I’m going to put it in a Federal Express package and give it to my father. The championship impacted my father. Not only am I living my dream, but I’m living his dream.”

It would have continued without the contract extension. The Lakers would have played for another championship, with another team expected to play well into June. The organization instead chose to ride Shaq’s momentum for six more seasons, to see where he might take it.

“Shaq has that way of carrying himself,” Jackson said. “I think that he senses that he has carried the sense of the team on his shoulders. He senses it intuitively at times. Last year, with his leadership ability, he did more active motivation. He was an impressive figure out there. To me, that was the change that went on last year. Before, I thought I saw Shaquille close down and play more of an individual game than a team game. I think Shaq’s ability to lead will be what will change this year for him.

“Psychologically, you have to climb that mountain every year. You have to go back up that hill and reestablish it. You know it’s there, so you pattern yourself.”

Shaquille O’Neal took his money and acknowledged that later on, when nobody was around, maybe while he was driving that big old Rolls down the road, he might dance himself right out of those moccasins.

He took his money and then turned and playfully hugged his general manager.

“I look forward to ending my career as a Laker,” he said, “as I always wanted to do.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Terms of Endearment

A look at Shaquille O’Neal’s original seven-year, $120-million deal that he signed with the Lakers in 1996, and the three-year, $88.4-million extension he signed with the team Friday:

ORIGINAL CONTRACT

Salary each season:

1996-1997: $10,714,287

1997-1998: $12,857,144

1998-1999: $15,000,001

1999-2000: $17,142,858

2000-2001: $19,285,715

2001-2002: $21,428,572

2002-2003: $23,571,429

CONTRACT EXTENSION

O’Neal’s contract extension begins in the 2003-04 season. Under the NBA’s salary guidelines, he will receive a 12.5% raise--$2.95 million--each year of his contract, making his scheduled earnings:

2003-04: $26,517,857

2004-05: $29,464,285

2005-06: $32,410,713

NOTE: The final year of O’Neal’s contract would not be the largest in NBA history. Michael Jordan was paid $33.14 million by Chicago in 1997-98.

Putting Up Big Numbers

Top NBA salaries for the 2000-01 season:

Kevin Garnett (Minnesota): $19,606,300

Shaquille O’Neal (Lakers): $19,285,715

Alonzo Mourning (Miami): $16,879,800

Juwan Howard (Washington): $16,875,000

Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston): $16,685,665

Scottie Pippen (Portland): $16,438,811