O’Neal, Jackson Nearing Crossroads

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Staples Center....

We keep thinking we’ve seen it all and the Lakers keep showing us we haven’t. Take the last 10 days, when it became evident they’re not doing their 2001 scenario, where they suddenly wake up and win the rest of their games.

Instead, their winning streak came to a screeching halt, Shaquille O’Neal left and Phil Jackson chided him for “Ming-itis.” Then, just when it looked as though we were going back to the debate about whether they’ll make the playoffs, Kobe Bryant dialed it up from MVP Level to Unreal, scoring 52 to beat the Houston Rockets in double overtime and 40 in a gut-check the next night at Salt Lake City.

“I was like everyone else,” says Sacramento personnel director Jerry Reynolds. “I didn’t think they could beat a good Utah team in the Delta Center on the second night of a back-to-back after going two overtimes.

“I miscalculated. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.”

He meant Bryant, not O’Neal, even if Shaq’s the one with the “S” logo on his biceps, his cars and the doorpost of his house.

O’Neal returned Friday, but the Lakers looked so wobbly beating the Portland Trail Blazers, you wouldn’t want to say they’ve turned it back around. Nor would you say Shaq’s reputation escaped unscathed, after the media spent the week having at him like villagers chasing Frankenstein with pitchforks and torches.

Of course, as everyone knows, it’s only February and nothing important happens before April.

Well, they used to say that, anyway. This February, the Lakers are just trying to make it to March.

With success you get bigger heads, higher ticket prices and greater expectations but no guarantees.

The Lakers may not be the best team anymore. They’re certainly the thinnest of the elite teams and at the moment, they’re the least cohesive. Shaq hasn’t been Shaq for a while and it remains to be seen when, if or to what extent he ever will be again.

On the other hand, Shaq and the Lakers just won you three titles so you’re overdue for a little disappointment.

This isn’t a morality play about fallen angels and lost character, but a real-life test for the Lakers’ characters, overindulged young guys who have to learn things in their own time and way, which is, inevitably, the hard way.

The media have their own rituals to observe, lionizing them when they’re up, turning vengeful when they’re down, but there are actual issues to be dealt with:

* The rest of O’Neal’s career. It’s easy to say he should play with pain because he did when he cared, but only he knows how much pain he endured then and now.

The real question is if he’ll figure out he has to start taking better care of himself.

It’s immaterial if he flattened Rik Smits in the 2000 Finals at 335 pounds and weighs the same now. He was 28 in 2000, with quickness and explosion that made him not merely dominating, but unique in the game’s history.

Going on 31, trimmed down though he may be, he’s not the same. Friday he was knocking Dale Davis out of the way, as usual, but still coming up short on moves on which he used to hurl down monster jams, obliging him to go to his new finger-roll.

As Shaq recently noted (then semi-denied in his inimitable style, saying a Chicago Sun-Times reporter woke him up and he didn’t know what he was saying), his off-seasons are his, but not without consequences.

He can still be the game’s best center, lying around in summer and trying to play his way into shape in winter so he can roll in spring, but he won’t be what he was.

* The rest of Jackson’s career. His fabled calm sprang a leak before the Rocket game when he did a 28-second standup with the Laker press corps, during which he noted: “I don’t know what you guys are doing here in the first place.”

They were working. Jackson makes $6 million a year, which is paid by fans and viewers, whose interest is enhanced, if not created, by the media. For more solitude, he could try chess or the WNBA, but the pay is less.

My bet is this season is a giant reminder to Jackson that the five years on his contract, which runs through next season, will be quite enough.

Despite the Chicago Bulls’ organizational turmoil, that team, at least, was so professional and businesslike, Jackson could even take on Dennis Rodman.

The Lakers, on the other hand, are forever young, always testing Jackson in a new way you or he never imagined. You can change channels but he’s accountable.

Let’s see, who else can they get with similar credibility to replace Jackson? Oh, yeah, there’s no one.

* The rest of the Laker dynasty. If they were cavalier while the Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks chased free agents all over the countryside, management now understands it has work to do.

With their two-megastar configuration, trading isn’t promising, since it’s hard to add depth while giving up someone. What they do have is glamour, opportunity to win a title and cash flow so torrential, they can go farther above the tax threshold (they’re already $10 million over) and stay profitable.

This summer, they can offer their $4.5-million veterans’ exception to Scottie Pippen or Keon Clark. They can even try splitting the exception and longer contracts -- even if the player doesn’t stay for all those years -- to see if they can get two players.

It’s holy writ around the Lakers that owner Jerry Buss won’t add more salary, but then, he has never had to. They said the same thing in 1999, before he hired Jackson.

Even good times change. The glory years may or may not be over, but there are days when it feels as though you can see it from here.

*

Faces and Figures

Orlando’s Tracy McGrady was so upset when teammate Mike Miller was traded, he twice hung up on Coach Doc Rivers, who was trying to call to console him. Said McGrady of his new teammates, Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek: “I don’t know these guys from Adam. Mike is my man. That’s like my brother, man. And he’s no longer with me. I’m telling you right now: I’m going to be hard on these guys, man. I swear to God, too, because Mike is my dude, man. I’m going to be hard on these guys.” ... Gooden then scored 22 points with 11 rebounds and Giricek got 15 points in their Magic debut. Said Rivers: “I asked T-Mac if he had any more friends. If so, we’re going to trade them all.” ... Home is where the contract has eight digits to the left of the decimal point: With Gilbert Arenas averaging 24 points this month, the Golden State Warriors are worried they’ll lose him to free agency. Unable to trade center Erick Dampier and his $8-million-a-year contract, they’re still over the cap and can offer Arenas only the $4.5-million exception. Denver and Miami, to name two teams, are expected to go higher. Arenas, the former Van Nuys Grant High star, has stopped talking about staying “close to home.”

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out: Suggesting just how bad things had gotten between Seattle SuperSonic owner Howard Schultz and Gary Payton, Schultz said the hardest part about making the deal with Milwaukee “was the thought of Desmond Mason leaving this team. Someone like Desmond, you can’t teach the things that he brings.” ... Schultz did note that newly acquired Ray Allen’s “leadership in the locker room” and “maturity” make him “the kind of mentor we haven’t had here.” ... New York Knick Coach Don Chaney, on Denver’s rookie center, Nene Hilario: “He’s improved and he’ll continue to improve because of his desire for the game. He wants to work and do better and he enjoys the game. Guys with that kind of attitude always improve.” ... The Nuggets took Hilario with the No. 4 pick they got from the Knicks for Antonio McDyess.... Yao Ming, on seeing his new, bestest friend at the All-Star game: “After practice, Shaq came over and talked with my parents. I was already gone. But Shaq gave my mom a kiss. I hope my father didn’t mind. It’s not a custom for strangers to kiss in China. But I guess Shaq is not really a stranger anymore.”