Foul Ploy

By Bill Plaschke

Nov. 30, 2001 12 AM PT

From far away, the free-throw sculptor watches his creation crumble, brick by brick.

“His timing is off, his follow is not there, his height is not there, he’s flailing out there,” Ed Palubinskas says.

From the Laker training center, the creation brushes off the dust and shrugs.

“Don’t want him,” Shaquille O’Neal says. “Don’t need him.”

At the moment, it doesn’t matter.

At the moment, nothing matters.

The way the Lakers are playing, Shaquille O’Neal could shoot free throws with his jib-sized shorts draped over his head and they would still win by a dozen.

But still, you wonder.

Remember two weeks ago in Phoenix, when, acting upon complaints from other teams, a referee warned O’Neal about stepping over the line on his foul shots?

Before that game, O’Neal was shooting 63% from the line.

Since then, he has shot 39% from the line.

Before that game, he was averaging 30.6 points.

Since then, he has averaged 21.3 points.

You watch the Lakers gore opponents like, well, bulls. And you know the only important numbers are so far are 13 and 1.

But still, you wonder.

Was that referee’s warning like a fingernail down the blackboard of his concentration?

Has he stumbled indefinitely out of his free-throw rhythm of late last season?

Is this new worry about free throws affecting his entire offensive approach?

And, if so, wouldn’t this be a good time to call up an old friend?

That would be Palubinskas, the diminutive Louisiana free-throw champion who spent eight months here last season transforming O’Neal at the line--and the Lakers in the standings.

He rode with O’Neal during the Laker championship parade.

But at O’Neal’s request, he hasn’t been seen since.

“I already learned all I need to learn,” O’Neal said. “He helped me get my form back, but now it’s up to me. It’s all mental now.”

Sure seemed physical last season.

On Dec. 8, O’Neal missed all 11 free-throw attempts in a season-low loss to Seattle.

On April 17, he made all 13 free-throw attempts in a regular-season finale win against Denver.

During the winter, O’Neal was shooting 37%.

By spring, he had gone on a 17-game roll during which he shot 67%.

During the playoffs, with Palubinskas following him, O’Neal shot 53% but made every big free throw and turned Hack-a-Shaq into the basketball version of a silly prevent defense.

“All year long I was the one person always hugging him, patting him on the back when he was struggling, giving him that connection,” Palubinskas said.

He contacted the Lakers this summer about renewing his contract. He asked for last year’s $2,000-a-day fee, plus new bonuses, such as $100,000 a month if O’Neal shot better than 65-70%.

The Lakers probably never would have met that exorbitant demand, but they were certainly willing to negotiate. They have never pinched pennies when it comes to making their great players better.

But O’Neal said no.

“Shaquille felt that he learned enough, to the point where he could continue to improve on his own,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said.

Asked about it Thursday after practice, O’Neal put it another way.

“When I need to make ‘em, I’ll make ‘em,” he said.

In a phone interview this week from his Baton Rouge home, Palubinskas had a different word for it.

“Ridiculous,” he said.

He added: “I just don’t think free-throw shooting is important enough to Shaq. I don’t think it’s a priority. He’s got his 100 million and his two MVPs. He can win without it.”

Indeed, two years ago, O’Neal led the Lakers to their first title without a free-throw coach.

And overall last season, his .513 free-throw percentage was lower than his career percentage of .531, and the Lakers still won.

But still ...

If O’Neal, shooting .521 from the line this season, has time to take weekly classes while training to become a reserve cop, as reported in the Daily News on Thursday, then maybe he would have time for a few extra free throws?

Last year, O’Neal’s then-agent Leonard Armato encouraged O’Neal to make the time.

Armato not only hired Palubinskas but laced up his sneakers and rebounded during after-hours practices.

“They realized that everything Shaq does on the floor is better when he is making his free throws,” Palubinskas said. “It sounds crazy, but he plays smoother when he isn’t worried about the foul line.”

Palubinskas said he was only in town a couple of hours last November when he realized O’Neal’s embarrassment at his problem.

“The first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m only doing this because they want me to do it,”’ Palubinskas said. “I said, ‘Fine, I’m flying home.”’

O’Neal relented, and three hours later he was shooting 76% in practice.

For the rest of the season they shot several hundred free throws a day. Sometimes at 8 a.m. Sometimes at midnight. Sometimes with as little as 20 minutes’ notice.

“I’d be in my hotel late at night and Shaq would call and say, ‘C’mon, let’s shoot,’ and we would run at the gym,”’ Palubinskas said.

O’Neal became so proficient during these sessions, he would make 70% with his eyes closed.

Palubinskas, who holds Louisiana State free-throw records and once made 523 consecutive free throws at a Final Four exhibition, figured out O’Neal’s problem immediately.

Yep. It’s his right wrist. Ever since breaking it in high school, it doesn’t function in precise free-throw rhythm with the rest of his arm.

“He’s an anatomical anomaly,” Palubinskas said. “The wrist lines up wrong with the elbow.”

Part of the weight overcompensation required to remedy this condition means that O’Neal will occasionally step over the foul line before the ball hits the rim.

“He occasionally did it last year too, but we fixed it,” Palubinskas said.

It clearly could use fixing again. Since Phoenix, O’Neal’s feet are tentatively planted in front of the line while the ball sails flatly to the rim.

There have been several near air-balls, several loud clanks. All of it very familiar.

This new, confident foul shooter is again looking timid and hassled.

“I thought last year he understood that if he just worked at it, he could do it, and everybody would shut up,” Palubinskas said. “But now, it seems like it’s not a priority.”

This summer, O’Neal showed another change in priorities by severing ties with the popular Armato.

Palubinskas wonders if he’s not in the same situation.

“Shaq wants to get out on his own, do it all by himself, you see that in other areas of his life,” Palubinskas said. “And I will say this: He is an emotional foul shooter who seems to do his best when he’s at the bottom of the barrel.”

At this rate, he’ll be there soon. The Lakers can only hope he can climb out alone.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at [email protected].

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BY THE NUMBERS

52.1%

Shaq’s free-throw percentage this season.

39.6%

Shaq’s free-throw percentage after 14 games last season.

16 for 18

Shaq’s best game at free-throw line this season (Nov. 2 vs. Phoenix).

2 for 9

Shaq’s worst game at free-throw line this season (Nov. 21 at Denver).