Stars Aligned for Sharman

A rookie on the 1971-72 Laker team, Laker assistant coach Jim Cleamons recalled Bill Sharman as a centered, reasonable coach whose deft touch with superstars Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West helped propel them to an NBA championship.

Cleamons recalled an idling team bus in New York, 11 players and a coaching staff waiting on Chamberlain before a morning shoot-around. Sharman finally had the bus driver depart without Chamberlain, and when the team returned to the hotel, Sharman went looking for his center.

While players wondered what might come between the established Chamberlain and the first-year coach, half expecting a blowup, neither Chamberlain nor Sharman spoke of the absence or their meeting.

And Chamberlain never missed another shoot-around, as Cleamons remembered it.

“He had a way of getting his way,” Cleamons said.

Already in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player, Sharman will be enshrined as a coach in the fall.

“I liked the way we played that year,” Cleamons said. “We shared the basketball. We played as a team. As a rookie, I started to think everyone played that way. We talked basketball. We moved the ball. Even though we had the superstars, we still talked team concepts.”

He credited Sharman for much of the success of that team.

“He knew what he wanted, offensively and defensively,” he said. “And the guys responded.”

“Plus,” Cleamons added with a grin, “he’s the only coach I ever had who wanted me to shoot the ball.”

After the championship, when West chose to continue his career and the Lakers were thick with guards, Cleamons was traded away from the Lakers and Sharman.

“I cried like a baby, man,” he said.

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Coach Phil Jackson said he’d consider resting Shaquille O’Neal next week if the Lakers’ playoff position was secure and O’Neal’s right knee continued to be bothered by tendinitis.

“We’ll watch that,” Jackson said.

O’Neal said sitting out was “not an option.”

Horace Grant, who will have off-season surgery on his right hip but hopes to get through the playoffs, experienced some pain in the area and took Tuesday off. He said he expected to continue his rehabilitation today with an eye on playing Friday.

On the injured list because of a bone bruise and nerve irritation in his right foot, Kareem Rush could be activated for Friday’s game as well.

Slava Medvedenko did not practice Monday and still appeared stiff Tuesday after suffering from back spasms during Sunday’s game.

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Gary Payton played his 271st consecutive game, the third-longest streak in the NBA. Antawn Jamison played his 323rd consecutive game and Jamaal Magloire his 274th on Tuesday night.

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The inaugural Palms Casino Royale, benefiting the L.A. Lakers Youth Foundation, will be held Thursday night at the Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar. Laker players and celebrities will attend. Information: (310) 914-9100.... A Window Between Worlds, which aids abused women and children through art, will host an art exhibit April 24. Laker trainer Gary Vitti serves on the board of directors. Information: (310) 396-0317.