Heel Is O’Neal’s Latest Bother

Shaquille O’Neal, appearing trimmer than he was at the end of last season and sporting new tattoos on each of his forearms, the left one reading “BIG” beneath a flexing genie, arrived at training camp with a bruised left heel.

The knee and toe ailments that nagged him into the last postseason apparently were mended in a summer of rest and exercise, but the bruised heel was limiting Friday during the Lakers’ first full-squad workout.

“He wasn’t running as fluidly as I’d like to see,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

O’Neal predicted he would not miss any practices and, indeed, Jackson said, there were parts of Friday’s morning session that O’Neal did very well.

“That backboard’s still up there,” Jackson said, “but he rammed it pretty hard a few times with demonstrative dunks. Explosive.”

With a subtle grin, O’Neal explained that he suffered the injury recently while playing basketball.

“I jumped a little too high and came down funny on it,” he said, adding later, “I got my hops back.”

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A season of playing for the Washington Wizards was like a year off, Bryon Russell mused Friday, two days after signing a make-good contract with the Lakers.

Asked what went wrong in Washington, where he played sparingly, Russell said, “I don’t know. Too many generals and not enough soldiers, I guess. You know how that goes.”

Generals Michael Jordan and Doug Collins have left the Wizards, as has foot soldier Russell, who apparently will have to play well over the next few weeks to make the Laker roster.

In Washington, Russell missed some shots early in the season, then, according to sources there, was ridden viciously the rest of the year by Jordan. Some believe Russell can revive his career away from Jordan and back with Karl Malone.

“Me knowing me, I’m going to have a great camp,” he said. “Being around people who want to compete, that’s going to be great. Last year, sometimes I was the only one who wanted to play defense.”

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Rick Fox, recovering from springtime surgery to repair a tendon in his left foot, participated in a few mild drills Friday but spent most of the day atop the exercise equipment on the sideline. The Lakers are not expecting him to play before December or January, and still these could be discouraging days for Fox, who actually was told to leave the floor early in practice.

“I was able to do some minor things, a little more minor than I envisioned,” he said with a slight smile. “But they care about me. They don’t want another scene like the one last year.”

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About 1,000 tickets for each Laker home game will go on sale at 10 a.m. today through Ticketmaster outlets, at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling (800) 4NBATIX. There is a limit of four tickets per person per game.

Tickets will not be available at Staples Center.

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Alison Bogli has been promoted to assistant public relations director and Josh Rupprecht to public relations coordinator. Ryan Thompson has been hired as a public relations assistant.