All Eyes Will Be on Grant

On a team of exclamation points, he’s the comma. In a town of relationships, he’s the friend of a friend.

He’s been here nine months, yet only this weekend will the curtain be pulled back on the stranger intimately involved in the most important matchup in the Lakers’ Western Conference finals series against the San Antonio Spurs.

But we’ll get to that later.

Any discussion of Horace Grant must begin with--what else?--the glasses.

Perhaps the most famous spectacles in sports. Descended from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by way of James Worthy.

Did you know Grant doesn’t even need them?

“Laser surgery two years ago,” he says with a chuckle. “I see great.”

Do you know why he still wears them?

“Just habit,” he says. “And I get a lot of letters from kids who really need eye protection, who thank me for making it cool. I keep wearing them for those kids.”

How did it start?

“It was my third year in Chicago. I was reading a book real close to my face when [assistant coach] Johnny Bach saw me and said I should get my eyes checked.”

So?

“And doctors said I was legally blind.”

A standout career at Clemson, two NBA seasons, and legally blind?

“That’s what they said.”

So he started wearing the goggles right away?

“No. I tried on a pair one night before a game, and they looked real goofy, and Scottie Pippen said, ‘You’re not going to actually wear those, are you?’ And I said, ‘No way.’ ”

So you didn’t wear them?

“Well, I thought about it, and Scottie was like, daring me to wear them, so I did wear them.”

And the rest is sports ophthalmology history.

“Yeah. It all started on a dare.”

Do you always wear them?

“In the first game of the playoffs against Portland, for one play I didn’t wear them, and I threw up a terrible shot, and Phil [Jackson] yells, ‘It’s those damn goggles!’ so I put them back on right away.”

So that means you always wear them during games?

“Always. I don’t feel right without them. I’ve gone from goggles to these special-made glasses that don’t get scratched or foggy.”

Do you wear your glasses anywhere else?

“No. But people think I do. I’ll see people at a restaurant and they’ll say, ‘Where are your glasses?’ and I’m like, ‘They’re for basketball, not dinner.’ ”

How many pairs do you have?

“I use three during a game. But I have about 40 total.”

Isn’t that a lot?

“I had more, but they keep getting stolen. People take them off benches, out of locker rooms, I guess they want them as souvenirs.”

Why don’t fans just try to buy them?

“They do try to buy them. One fan offered me an autographed Michael Jordan jersey for one pair. I told him I already had a few of those jerseys.”

Whatever happened to that first pair of goggles anyway?

“I have them in a glass case in my home. [Laughing,] Gonna make a lot of money one day.”

The Irvine company that makes Grant’s glasses--Oakley Inc.--confirmed that he has become an important example of both their product, and eye safety.

“We gets tons of letters from kids who are, like, 14 years old and have suffered an eye injury and don’t want to wear glasses that make them goofy,” said Mark “Joker” Georgeson, an Oakley marketing representative. “The kids will send in their grass-mowing money and say they want something that will make them look cool, like Horace Grant.”

More important to Laker fans are Grant’s three championship rings with the Bulls.

Worrisome, though, is that he hasn’t won a ring in eight years, he will soon be 36, and how much energy will he have for the most important matchup of their season?

He’s the dude guarding the Spurs’ Tim Duncan.

Not to mention, he will be needed to shoot against a San Antonio defense that will be sagging on Shaquille O’Neal.

“No place I’d rather be,” said Grant.

It seemed that way when the playoffs began, as he scored 12 points on six field goals in the first quarter of the Laker opener against the Portland Trail Blazers. Then he had only seven baskets in the next 11 quarters.

In one game in the second round, he helped hold Sacramento’s Chris Webber to nine baskets in 26 shots. But in the next game, Webber went 13 for 27.

Grant has seemed to appear just in time for the big fourth-quarter rebound or basket throughout the playoffs.

But his points, minutes and rebounds are all down slightly from his regular-season totals.

These inconsistencies began in the regular season. Grant helped shut down Duncan one night, then was torched by him the next time they played.

In the next two weeks, Grant will have plenty of help from Robert Horry and maybe even Rick Fox. He will need it. The Lakers will need him.

“It’s not about the stars on either one of these teams,” Jackson said. “It’s about the team effort. It’s based on the tugging and pulling of who gets their way.”

Nothing rose-colored about that.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.