Shaq Tries L.A. On For Size O’Neal, Teammates Believe It’s Been A Perfect Fit This Season

You could try to measure Shaquille O’Neal by the number of tickets sold the day he signed with the Lakers (6,000), or the size of the mural going up in Los Angeles to advertise his new shoe (30,000 square feet), or the number of people who bump into him during a game who wind up flat on their backs (about two per night).

Or you could simply take teammate Cedric Ceballos’ word: “Big personality, big image, big guy.”

O’Neal, all 7-feet-1, 300 pounds of him, had been contemplating his big life, and he reached this conclusion: “I think I’d rather be a big fish in a big pond with a lot of other big fish, rather than a big fish in a small pond.”

Splash. Shaq’s in Los Angeles, swimming with the groupers. Let the guppies stay in Orlando, a city where the only other celebrity was a fictitious mouse.

Very little gets the blase folks of L.A. excited - other than the prospect of the Lakers winning championships. With the free agent O’Neal in town thanks to a $121 million contract, that seems a possibility for the first time since the Showtime era, and all the attendant glitz and glamor are back, too.

“Hype-wise, I think it’s about the same,” said veteran guard Byron Scott, who was on three of the championship teams during the 1980s and has returned for a second tour of duty with the Lakers. “Everybody in L.A. expects us to win and we expect it.”

“You can feel the electricity in here, the excitement,” said Magic Johnson during a preseason game at the Forum, holding out his hand as if he could grab a piece of the feeling and take it home. “You can feel it in the city.”

As Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter said, “Ladies and gentlemen, there has been a slight power surge.”

That was during a preseason game, after O’Neal swatted Rex Chapman’s shot off the backboard with so much force that three basket-mounted cameras were knocked out of commission and the game and shot clocks attached to the backboard went on the fritz, closely followed by the scoreboard and several banks of lights in the Forum.

Look for plenty of blocked shots this season - O’Neal has 41 already - although they won’t always be accompanied by electrical failures. Lakers coach Del Harris has urged O’Neal to focus on the other aspects of his game, particularly defense, rebounding and running.

“I’m not looking to score 30 points any more,” said O’Neal, who is averaging 24.8 a game. “When I was down in Orlando, it was score, score, score. I already have the scoring down. I’ll be looking to do other things, like get more rebounds, block more shots.”

O’Neal remains a dominating presence in the half-court offense, so much so that sometimes his teammates get caught standing around and watching him. And with this collection of, uh, personalities, there’s always the potential for jealousy, backbiting and resentment because of the attention O’Neal receives.

“I think that if everyone plays their role and guys don’t try to go off on their own, we’ll be good,” O’Neal said.

That means no impromptu vacations to Lake Havasu, Ariz., Cedric Ceballos. No flying off the handle and shoving referees, Nick Van Exel.

While with the Vancouver Grizzlies last season, Scott saw all of the madness going on in L.A. and figured it must have been an expression of some type of internal friction. Clearly, the team had trouble adjusting to the four-month unretirement of Magic Johnson and his dominant identity, while Johnson couldn’t bridge the generation gap with today’s players. Scott hasn’t found that to be the case with O’Neal.

“He has a personality that just fits in with everyone else’s personality,” Scott said. “You can just throw him into the middle of a crowd and he will adapt. He is one of the biggest stars in this league. To be able to adapt like that is amazing.”

So far, it sounds as if the rest of the team is following in line.

“He’s the man,” Van Exel said.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Ceballos said. “I just want to be out there on the court.”

“Shaq’s the daddy,” said Harris, sounding as if he’s already down with the Shaq lingo.

It will be up to Harris to keep the players in order, something he didn’t do last year.

“The coach must, by definition, be a leader,” Harris said. “You have to understand that you have an all-star player - or more - and you have to deal with them on a very professional basis. You can’t become a fan.”

As for O’Neal, he’s trying to become a player sound in all aspects of the game - even free throws (he’s hitting 45 percent this season).

O’Neal worked on a movie, “Steel,” this summer and the single from his latest album, “You Can’t Stop the Reign,” is out. However, O’Neal the multimedia entity is on hold right now.

“I’m sure, in the future, there’ll be some ancillary benefits from Los Angeles being the entertainment capital of the world and one of the media centers,” said Leonard Armato, O’Neal’s agent. “But I haven’t really even thought too much about that. He’s really just focusing on playing basketball and helping the team win a championship.”

“I just want to be appreciated,” O’Neal said. “I just want to go out, play hard. I just want to win. It’s all about winning.”