O’Neal Ready to Take Next Step

The mood was somber at the Lakers’ HealthSouth training center in El Segundo on Monday. Reporters crowded around spokesman John Black as he talked quietly about the condition of broadcaster Chick Hearn, who is expected to undergo hip surgery today.

But as Black spoke, one reporter after another began to look toward the trainers’ room behind them. And they began to laugh. There in the window was Shaquille O’Neal, all 7 feet 1 and 330-something pounds of him, dancing and gesturing with nothing on but a pair of bright yellow shorts.

Shaq is back, feisty and frolicking one moment, fuming and furious the next. Back after spending five games on the injured list to rest the arthritic big toe on his right foot. Back with a new orthotic device in his shoe to relieve pressure. Back with anger and determination after watching opposing teams win three of the five he missed and show, in O’Neal’s mind, a lack of respect for the two-time defending NBA champions.

When the Lakers and Boston Celtics tip off tonight at Staples Center, O’Neal will be on the court, wearing considerably more than he was Monday.

“I’m pretty anxious to get out there,” O’Neal said. “There’s been a lot of taunting, a lot of trash-talking going on. All that is going to have to stop.”

The Lakers have lost their last two games, to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday and the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.

After Sunday’s game, former Laker Ruben Patterson was vocal about his self-defined role as the “Kobe stopper,” referring to his defensive efforts against Kobe Bryant.

“Ruben Patterson wouldn’t be saying that if I was there,” O’Neal said.

Laker Coach Phil Jackson cautioned that there should be no expectations O’Neal will come back in peak form.

“Basketball-wise, he’s pretty rusty,” said the Laker coach, who added with a grin, “I don’t plan on playing him [tonight] one minute longer than 40 minutes.”

Bryant assumed leadership of the team and had at least 10 assists in three of the five games without O’Neal, but there was little Bryant could do about the huge hole in the middle created by the center’s absence. Opposing teams often had their way around the basket.”Board-wise, we didn’t stand on our own,” Jackson said, “and interior-wise, they beat us up some in the paint.”

This is not a new story. The Lakers, the league’s dominant team when O’Neal patrols the middle, struggle to stay above .500 when he is out.

This is the second time O’Neal has been on the injured list this season because of the toe problem. He also missed three games when he was suspended for fighting. The Lakers are 7-6 without him.

Over the last four seasons, they are 13-12 without O’Neal, and they might be without him for another stretch this season.

Jackson won’t rule out giving O’Neal another five-game break on the injured list to rest the toe sometime before the start of the playoffs.

“We don’t know physically how long he can go, five games or 10 games or what,” Jackson said. “We’ll just have to roll with it.

“But there is a good chance we will have to [return O’Neal to the injured list] again.”

O’Neal is realistic about his condition.

“I should be all right,” he said. “Hopefully, I won’t have to [return to the injured list], but if I have to do it again if it’s needed and we’re in a position where I can do it, then I will.

“And if we don’t have the time, I will just have to suck it up.”

But on Monday, there was only optimism.

As he walked from the court after practice to talk to reporters, O’Neal casually flung a ball over his right shoulder to the basket about 50 feet away.

Nothing but net.

“The Diesel is back,” O’Neal said. “If the playoffs started today, we would still be fine. We just have to be on our toes.”

The question is, how long can O’Neal be on his?