O Neal

With optimism blooming over the Lakers' prospects for another NBA championship, there will be plenty of reminders that hark back to their winning past. Former Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal, who won three NBA championships here from 2000 to 2002, will have his No. 34 jersey retired April 2 at Staples Center in a halftime ceremony when the Lakers host the Dallas Mavericks. Former Lakers forward Jamaal Wilkes, who helped to win three NBA titles during the team's Showtime Era, will have his No. 52 jersey retired Dec. 28 at Staples Center at halftime when the Lakers host the Portland Trail Blazers.

With the stroke of a pen, Dwight Howard won't just etch his name on a contract formally tabbing himself a Laker. He also has a chance to join an esteemed fraternity of big men. That includes one of the pioneers of pro basketball (George Mikan), the highest scorer in a single game (Wilt Chamberlain), the NBA's all-time leading scorer (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and what many consider to be one of the NBA's most physical big men (Shaquille O'Neal). Not that Howard needs to be reminded about the strong Laker history, but the Mikan, Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar retired jerseys already hang on the Staples Center rafters.

The NBA holds an annual draft, but it has never meant much to the Lakers. They don't draft stars so much as acquire them. It's been this way for decades, with the Lakers often harvesting top talent from elsewhere instead of growing their own. Dwight Howard, acquired from Orlando on Friday, was only the latest example of the Lakers making a move that shifted the NBA's landscape. Here are a few of the other monumental Lakers trades, or signings, that helped the franchise win 16 NBA championships, one behind the Boston Celtics: Wilt Chamberlain (1968-73 with Lakers)

Once the finality settled in, the emotions overwhelmed Jerry West. He labored all season to determine whether he could clear enough cap space to acquire Shaquille O'Neal. Finally, that moment came. West compared the experience to the birth of his children. Securing O'Neal to a seven-year, $120-million deal tilted the NBA's balance in the Lakers' favor. West envisioned O'Neal bringing two things that the Lakers value -- a Hollywood personality and NBA championships. Yet West's perfectionist nature didn't allow him to fully enjoy the moment.

They are a team of stars, in a town of stars, but some of my best Lakers memories involve the scrubs. If Disney made a movie about the Lakers' last dozen years, it would be called "Beauty and the Bench," as the five happy endings would have been impossible without either. Everyone remembers the alley-oop from Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O'Neal in the era-changing Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals against Portland, but I remember two other guys. Brian Shaw and Robert Horry came off the bench that afternoon to combine for the game's biggest shots and rebounds, including a late-third-quarter three-pointer by Shaw that began the historic comeback and remains one of the most important bombs in Lakers history.

Shaquille O'Neal's presence in the NBA playoffs remains large. The center who led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA titles (2000-02), feuded with Kobe Bryant, then paired to win a ring with Miami's Dwyane Wade in 2006 before retiring last year is now an analyst on TNT's Emmy-winning "Inside the NBA. " With TNT providing blanket playoff coverage, including the Clippers-Memphis game Monday, O'Neal, who works along with Charles Barkley, Kenny...

In an effort perhaps to sharpen his recently poor putting, Tiger Woods appears to have contacted an unlikely source. Shaq Fu. A new commercial promoting Tiger Woods' PGA Tour 13 features Shaquille O'Neal and Woods mimicking classic kung fu films, including awkward voice dubbing and endless kung fu moves. Based on O'Neal's free-throw shooting history, it's likely the former Lakers center adopts Happy Gilmore's game: tremendous driving power and unreliable putting. So it's unclear if such an approach would actually help.

Reporting from Philadelphia — Kobe Bryant chewed on his jersey, his hands on his hips as the Philadelphia 76ers shot meaningless free throws in the final seconds. The Lakers failed in another attempt to take a bite out of a woeful road record. They surrendered a late seven-point lead amid a stunning flurry of missed shots, most of them by Bryant, in a 95-90 loss Monday at Wells Fargo Center. Philadelphia fans booed Bryant in his hometown, as always, when he was introduced before the game.

Maybe Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal will eventually look back on what could have been accomplished. For now, the weird, cautious chasm continues between two of the best in Lakers history. Bryant passed O'Neal for fifth on the NBA's all-time scoring list Monday, and O'Neal was one of the first to send an opinion on Twitter. "Congrats to Kobe for being the greatest laker ever," he wrote in a conciliatory tone. "Thanks for making us the greatest laker one two punch ever and congrats on passin me up 2. " Bryant took over the fifth spot on a long jump shot in the second quarter of the Lakers' 95-90 loss to Philadelphia.

There is no shortage of nicknames that the playful Shaquille O'Neal could bestow upon Andrew Bynum, from the Big Successor to Shaq Lite to the Most Dominant Since I Retired. O'Neal wouldn't go there. The TNT analyst adopted a more serious, highbrow tone Monday inside Staples Center when asked to assess Bynum's play this season. "He's the best big man in the game right now," O'Neal said of the Lakers center. "He's the only big man in the league that's playing like a true big man. " Indeed, seven months after he leveled Jose Barea with a forearm in the playoffs, Bynum returned as if he intended to flatten the rest of the NBA. In his first three games this season, the 7-footer averaged 22.7 points and 17 rebounds, an unsustainable pace but one that reflected Bynum's ability to be a force on all 94 feet of the court.