Salley Getting Read on History as Laker Good-Humor Man

INDIANAPOLIS —  Sure, there are legacies to be secured as the Lakers stand one victory away from winning the NBA championship.

With a championship, Shaquille O’Neal can take a rightful place at the table with the great centers in NBA lore.

With a championship, Phil Jackson can become only the second coach to win a title with two different teams, joining Alex Hannum (Philadelphia and St. Louis).

But only John Salley has the opportunity to make history.

With one more victory, Salley will become the first player to win a championship with three different teams: The Detroit Pistons (in 1989 and 1990) the Chicago Bulls (in 1996) and now the Lakers.

“It couldn’t happen to a better person,” Salley said. “I couldn’t find anybody else I would want this to happen to.”

He was laughing, of course. There’s usually laughter whenever Salley is in the vicinity.

Salley is more than just a person to interview during the “media availability periods” of the NBA playoffs. His sessions are part stand-up comedy routine, part educational session.

He’ll make references to subjects as diverse as Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler within a couple of minutes. He spent the time before one game during the Sacramento series reading a screenplay. Another recent pregame session found him discussing Internet stocks.

And he can drop names faster than O’Neal can turn and dunk.

On Sylvester Stallone: “We used to live on the same block.”

On Denzel Washington: “Me and Denzel are real cool.”

On Ed Norton: “We’ve got the same massage therapist.”

He’ll offer his opinions on music (“The Artist Formerly Known as Prince was not Prince. Now he’s Prince again, maybe we can get some Prince music back”) or basic knowledge (“Old Math, New Math, you understand? You need the old math to learn how to do it the long way. Once you learn how to do it this way, then you have the fundamentals.”) or anything else.

Salley is always talking. He just hasn’t done much playing.

He appeared in only 45 games during the regular season, logging 303 minutes.

But when the team meets to divvy up playoff pool money, Salley, as team sage and entertainer, will deserve a full share.

“Being on the bench doesn’t mean that you haven’t contributed,” he said. “Maybe you’ve contributed more.

“Especially on the away court. The entire Laker fanship is [represented by the bench] right there on that court. Especially in a place like this [Conseco Fieldhouse], which is filled with blue and yellow [Pacer colors]. So we’re the ones sitting around, giving them the energy, giving them the spirit, giving them what they need. We’re the ones who help out. Sitting on the bench is nothing you should be ashamed of. There’s worse things you could be.”

Unemployed, someone suggested.

“Or a reporter,” Salley countered.

Actually, he has had a taste of both over the last three years. He was out of the NBA after playing the second half of the 1995-96 season with the Bulls. He also spent some time as a media member with NBC the next season and didn’t return to the NBA until the Lakers brought him to training camp last fall.

A man once closely identified with the Bad Boy Pistons ended his career with two of their greatest rivals, the Bulls and Lakers.

He has no trouble reconciling that.

“This is a job,” he said. “The team I’m loyal to is the one that hands me a check. I have to feed my daughters and put them through private school.”

Since Phil Jackson has played O’Neal as much as possible, most of Salley’s job has consisted of getting his teammates in the proper mental state.

“I think for some of our younger guys, including myself, it’s been a plus to have a veteran guy that doesn’t necessarily get to play a lot but still is showing some other leadership qualities,” backup point guard Derek Fisher said. “Salley’s a guy that . . . just tries to always get you to stay focused and stay in the moment.”

Salley draws on his knowledge of a wealth of subjects, the result of a voracious appetite for reading. While other players are looking at stat sheets or glancing at videotapes of the last game in the locker room before games, Salley is cracking open books.

“I studied the Seven Doors of Islam,” he said. “I studied Tai Chi. I studied part of the Zen.

“I also studied myself on how to do it. I read books. Many Lives, Many Masters, Conversations with God . . . I mean, tons and tons of books that deal with different ways of looking at things.”

He started yoga early in his career after seeing the way it extended the playing life of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. More recently, he has become a vegetarian.

He actually had to use his body when O’Neal fouled out in overtime of Game 4. Salley didn’t do much, other than get scored on by Rik Smits. But with Kobe Bryant playing so spectacularly, it really didn’t matter who was on the floor.

“It was Kobe and the Temptations [Wednesday] night, as opposed to just being the Temptations,” Salley said. “It was Kobe and the Temptations, like Gladys Knight and the Pips.”

When the music sounds good, everyone benefits. Ringo Starr was just as much a Beatle as Paul McCartney, right?

So Salley could become just as much a champion as Shaquille O’Neal.

And with his own unique three-peat, he could become a historical figure in his own right.

“You know, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, John Salley,” he said.

Cue the laugh track.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.