Eddie Palubinskas

The man who saved the Laker season is 50 years old, with eyes blue as pool water, a rickety gait, and a plan to teach the world how to shoot free throws a driveway at a time, if that's what it takes. The man who saved the Laker season regards himself as the Johnny Appleseed of jump shots, dropping seeds of shooting-stroke wisdom on a public of bricklayers bereft of touch. To prove his gift, six months ago he chose as his pupil the largest and most challenged among us.

The man who saved the Laker season is 50 years old, with eyes blue as pool water, a rickety gait, and a plan to teach the world how to shoot free throws a driveway at a time, if that's what it takes. The man who saved the Laker season regards himself as the Johnny Appleseed of jump shots, dropping seeds of shooting-stroke wisdom on a public of bricklayers bereft of touch. To prove his gift, six months ago he chose as his pupil the largest and most challenged among us.

No matter the persistence of the inquiries, Kobe Bryant would not subject himself to the warm and fuzzy "Kobe Goes Home" angle. For one, Bryant doesn't go much for heartwarming these days, not in the middle of the playoffs. Two, he was booed in the First Union Center when the Lakers played there on Feb. 14, and maybe he didn't like it. When he's slighted, Bryant's not much on forgiveness. "As far as going home, it's really nothing to me," he said. "To me, it's just basketball."

Derek Fisher played in 371 professional basketball games before Sunday night--regular season and playoffs--and fouled out in two. He could remember neither Tuesday afternoon, in part because his third disqualification was so fresh, coming as it did two nights before, in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Lakers seem to be getting the hang of guarding Allen Iverson, as much as anyone can. He's leading the Finals in scoring, at 35.3 points a game, but is shooting 40% from the field, including 29.

As he often does, Shaquille O'Neal spent the final minutes of Thursday's practice with Eddie Palubinskas, his free-throw coach. O'Neal missed 12 of 22 free throws, six in the fourth quarter and overtime of Game 1. Even so, O'Neal was Wednesday night's dominant player, backing easily through Dikembe Mutombo, and finishing with 17 field goals in 28 attempts. O'Neal fouled out Matt Geiger in 14 minutes, and had Mutombo on the brink of fouling out.

Eventually, the conversation turns to free throws. It's that time of year. Shaquille O'Neal has missed 16 of 24 in four exhibition games, which doesn't amount to much, except when Phil Jackson says it does. When teammates say O'Neal is shooting them fine in practice, and when O'Neal says he'll make them when he makes them, well, it's October, and there are bigger worries.

That was Shaquille O'Neal making free throws, hanging his hand artfully over his wrist, staring at Don Nelson. That was O'Neal pulling a rebound from the cloud that hung over the Lakers for a week, maybe more, dunking the put-back, screaming at no one in particular, but maybe at the slump that rides them almost without mercy.

Matched now against Arvydas Sabonis, then Antonio Harvey, then Rasheed Wallace, then the next to make the critical mistake of eye contact with Mike Dunleavy, Shaquille O'Neal allowed himself a moment Saturday afternoon. Reclined in a baseline seat at the Rose Garden while hail clattered at the roof above him, O'Neal acknowledged he's having a pretty good time in these playoffs. "We shouldn't change anything," he said.

It took him some time to admit it, and he might deny it today, but Shaquille O'Neal awoke Monday morning sore in his arms, shoulders and back. He was able to perform his daily tasks without Arvydas Sabonis slamming an arm down across his forear~ms, however, which made Monday go a bit easier than Sunday. O'Neal took part in a light practice, which included 30 minutes with shooting coach Eddie Palubinskas, and then went off to a health club for a few laps in the pool.

Turns out, peace, harmony and cute nicknames mean nothing to their regular season. The Lakers, twice-defending NBA champions, still can't be bothered by the 82 exhibition games that drag them through the league's unworthy, as they view the other 28. It would be arrogance, if they cared enough. Instead, it is indifference, raging. An Olympian apathy.