LAKERS PLAN ATTACK FOR SHAQ : MAGIC CENTER IS L.A.'S TOP PRIORITY.
Byline: Marc Stein Daily News Staff Writer
It's the get-rich summer Jerry West was never afforded as a player.
It's the free-agent jackpot that has eluded West lately in management.
It's the bonanza being billed as the richest swap meet in the history of professional sports, and it's starting for the Lakers vice president and everyone else in the NBA at precisely 9:01 (PDT) this morning.
That's when, barring a last-minute delay in the signing of the league's new labor agreement, a moratorium on basketball business is lifted and more than 150 players - roughly one-third of the sport's populace - will go onto the open market.
That's when West, who long ago targeted Orlando's Shaquille O'Neal as the prime catch from that mass of hoop humanity, becomes legally cleared to open negotiations that could give even a city saturated with stars an unprecedented shake.
Or leave Los Angeles and its Lakers centerless.
``Shaq's not one for dragging things out,'' said Leonard Armato, O'Neal's L.A.-based agent. ``It would be nice to know what is going to be offered and to get this process underway.''
Nice, indeed, for O'Neal, who along with fellow free-agent heavyweights Michael Jordan, Juwan Howard, Gary Payton, Reggie Miller and Alonzo Mourning is expected to wind up with an annual salary closer to $20 million than $10 million.
NBA commissioner David Stern, in fact, predicts that the league's 29 teams will dole out $1 billion - yes, you read billion - in guaranteed contracts this off-season.
And yet, West and his peers can't wait to start spending, their free-for-all having already been delayed eight days (from July 1 until today) as a result of collective-bargaining talks that went overtime.
West's eagerness could just as well be termed urgency. With Vlade Divac bound for Charlotte and Elden Campbell a highly coveted free agent, the Lakers are essentially without an established post man as they enter talks with O'Neal.
``Free agency is important to all of us - not just the Lakers,'' West said on draft night. ``It gives you the opportunity to get a player who has already proven himself in this league and might significantly help your team.
``. . . I'm assuming that we're going to have some new faces on our team, that's for sure.''
The first to arrive will be prep phenom Kobe Bryant, the 13th overall selection in last month's college draft who was acquired by West from Charlotte in exchange for Divac.
Now that the veteran center has backed off his threat to retire if traded, and with the salary cap poised to rise to $24.3 million as soon as the moratorium ends, the deal can go through officially - sending Bryant west and positioning the Lakers to make a monster bid for O'Neal.
Depending on how many of their seven free agents the Lakers let go, West can now offer O'Neal between $8.5-12 million for his first season here. Even at the low end of that range - where the Lakers will probably have to be if they adhere to plan and keep Campbell - the overall worth of a seven-year package approaches the magic figure of $100 million ($95.5 million to be exact, based on 20-percent increases per season).
By dealing away Divac and adding Bryant and No. 24 overall pick Derek Fisher from Arkansas-Little Rock, the Lakers gained about $2.8 million in cap room to add to the space that will be created by renouncing the rights to free agents Sedale Threatt, Derek Strong, Pig Miller, Fred Roberts and Frankie King, and the retirement of Magic Johnson.
If O'Neal demands most or all of the $12 million, West will be forced to either renounce the rights to Campbell as well or trade away
Trade away
Trade execution by another broker/dealer. Anthony Peeler or Cedric Ceballos for a future draft pick and hope Bryant adapts quickly to the big time.
``Sometimes,'' West admitted, ``you put yourself at risk when you try to make a team better.''
Around the league, of course, it's widely assumed that the deal is done, that West would never have agreed to move Divac without knowing with certainty that O'Neal is on the way.
The risk there is a tampering charge that, if proven, comes with a $5 million fine to the offending team. It's a penalty even the agent fears; Armato has reportedly instructed O'Neal not to mention the Lakers at all when fielding questions about free agency during his Olympic duties with Dream Team III.
What little O'Neal has said about his future, however, has been enough to worry the Magic, which figures to come up by at least $10 million on its initial four-year offer worth $54.76 million.
Orlando teammates Penny Hardaway and Dennis Scott are making daily pleas for the 7-foot-1, 303-pound giant to stay, begging him to give the Magic Kingdom - and the fans who have at times flustered O'Neal with their expectations and criticism - another chance.
``Orlando is the first option, but when the ninth (of July) comes, I don't know what I'm going to do,'' O'Neal said last week.
Should O'Neal decide to remain with the Magic, West could find himself facing a much greater degree of uncertainty.
It's conceivable that the other big men the Lakers like - Washington's Howard, Denver's Dikembe Mutombo, Miami's Chris Gatling and especially the Clippers' Brian Williams - will be gone by the time O'Neal makes his decision.
And what if Campbell leaves before O'Neal is nailed down?
It must be said that, in the recent past, West hasn't been a lucky shopper. In 1994, Horace Grant and Danny Manning spurned the Lakers' cash to sign elsewhere. And last summer, after creating some spending room through a series of roster moves, the Lakers watched helplessly as a new salary cap with new rules was voted in, changing everything.
``This is a year, in free agency, (that) I think's got a lot of people nervous,'' said Seattle coach George Karl. ``And where it goes, how it goes, what happens. . . .''
Only gamblers like West - or, rather, surefire stars like O'Neal - can complete that thought.
