Tilt Head Back And Look Squarely Down Your Nose

This hick-town hoops isn’t so bad.

Not that Orlando and Indianapolis aren’t major metropoli in many senses, but they ain’t New York or L.A. or Chicago, big-city-wise or basketballsuccess-wise.

These two cities are not afraid to show a little excitement over their basketball teams, sophistication be damned. In downtown Indianapolis, for instance, I heard complete strangers greet one another on the sidewalk using local radio announcer Slick Leonard’s pet phrase for a big Pacers play, i.e.:

Stranger 1 (nodding): “Boom, baby!”

Stranger 2 (nodding back): “Boom, baby!”

Now, of course, Indianapolis is plunged into gloom, baby, but they had fun while it lasted. I saw cops on patrol wearing cardboard goggles mocking Magic forward Horace Grant’s eyewear. After the Pacers’ huge win in Game 6 on Friday night, thousands of fans were still cruising the main city circle 3 hours after the game, honking horns and yelling like their team had just won the high school regionals.

In Orlando, a weird city built around amusement parks, you pass mile after mile of small-business roadside marquees with messages like “BBQ PLATTER WITH SLAW $4.99 GO MAGIC.”

The arena experience at Orlando’s O-rena is corny as can be, but the folks love it. They have taken the free-throwdistraction bit to new, absurd levels. Hundreds bring homemade banners and signs to the games. It’s more like a big high school game than an NBA game.

The folks here in central Florida have jumped on the Magic hard, fallen completely in love, even before the team got good. This is a city that deals in luring tourists by building an endless string of bigger and bigger amusement venues, and the city was starved for something real.

They got it in the Magic, a real team that is going out into the real world and kicking real NBA butt wearing jerseys with “Orlando” on the front. Folks here just couldn’t be prouder, couldn’t be gladder to be known for something other than Disney World and alligator farms.

And they’re proudest of all of Shaquille O’Neal, and proud that he is proud of them. “Not only did we make it to the NBA Finals,” O’Neal said after Sunday night’s crusher over the Pacers, “they (the fans) made it, too.”

You get the impression Shaq has found the perfect home here. Along with his game, he’s got a lot of showbiz, and they can appreciate that. They don’t look at his salesmanship and showmanship as hokey because nothing could be more hokey than Orlando itself.

They don’t compare him with past heroes because they don’t have any.

He drives the fans up and up, and they drive him. The team’s other stars are relatively quiet, not colorful personalities, not given to projecting themselves off the court, but Shaq reaches out, makes the fans feel like he knows they’re alive, which might not be cool by current NBA standards, but Shaq doesn’t care.

He interacts with the fans. He emotes to them, gestures to them, makes them feel like they matter. Does it make a difference? Well, the Magic lost four games at home this season.Before Game 7, O’Neal urged the fans to outdo themselves in terms of enthusiasm, even if it caused them sore throats.

“I’ll pay for the throat lozenges for everybody,” Shaq promised, and the Smith Brothers couldn’t be happier.

It’s probably not a coincidence that O’Neal played his best games in this series at home. On Sunday night he dominated Shaqland, the painted area of the court, with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

Shaq affects that game-face glower, but this NBA playoff success and pressure are just as new to him as it is to the fans.

“I couldn’t sleep (yesterday morning),” O’Neal said after the game. “I called Dennis (Scott) a couple times, he was like, ‘Relax, man. Let me sleep.”’

Scott, the Magic’s veteran small forward, said he could read O’Neal’s intensity by looking at his bald head.

“He comes in and I see the veins poppin’ out on his head,” Scott said, “and I know he’s ready.”

The bald head came into play in the fourth quarter, when Magic coach Brian Hill took his starters out of the game and they began celebrating. Asked if the dance had a name, O’Neal said, “‘Bang your head,’ made up by me.”

Patent pending.