Bynum Earns Some Respect

Andrew Bynum is still years away from delivering on his potential -- his 18th birthday was only three months ago -- but his 3 minutes 31 seconds of playing time Monday against the Miami Heat seemed like three years’ worth of aging.

He had two points and took one shot, the only stats he recorded in the Laker victory, but it was the shot heard ‘round Staples Center, if not in Laker owner Jerry Buss’ luxury suite, where it was greeted by an outburst of applause.

With just under a minute left in the second quarter, Bynum took a feed in the right post from Kobe Bryant and, with his back toward O’Neal, faked to the middle before spinning toward the baseline for a dunk.

It had a dash of James Worthy in it and, it turns out, some seasoning from Kareem.

“I faked the middle and he bit on it real hard,” Bynum said. “Cap taught me that move.”

Abdul-Jabbar, known as “The Captain” in his playing days, has worked with Bynum during practices as a special assistant coach for the Lakers.

In addition to post moves, Abdul-Jabbar has helped Bynum with post defense -- Laker officials were privately encouraged to see Bynum hold his ground defensively against O’Neal -- and one particular intangible.

After Bynum scored, he elbowed O’Neal at the other end as the Heat center moved toward the lane to get position. O’Neal answered with a forceful elbow to Bynum’s upper chest and both players were assessed technical fouls.

“For [Bynum] to come down and respond the way that he did, you also have got to know who his mentor is,” Bryant said. “We all know Kareem was nasty, man. He’s grooming Andrew Bynum and I think you see the aggressiveness in him.”

Bynum said he hadn’t expected to trade elbows with O’Neal.

“When he hit me, I was a little surprised,” Bynum said. “It wasn’t in my face or anything like that. He just hit me back in the chest. Nothing really I can do about that. He’s kind of big.”

Big, with a long memory.

Bynum irked O’Neal on draft day by saying he was a lot like O’Neal except that he actually made free throws. Only 17 at the time, Bynum didn’t know that O’Neal never likes to hear about missed free throws or added pounds.

“Tell him Shaq doesn’t respond to juvenile delinquents without a college degree,” O’Neal said at the time. “Tell him to get his degree and we can talk. In the meantime, he should call me ‘Dr. Shaq’ because I’m working on my PhD.”

With Bryant and O’Neal publicly mending fences before Monday’s tip-off, Bynum sidestepped the opportunity to plug himself into the rivalry void with O’Neal.

“I don’t feel any rivalry against him,” he said. “It’s not like I’m looking forward to going up against him and killing him every night, night in and night out every game we play.”

Bynum, selected 10th overall by the Lakers last June, is still developing in a time period to be measured in seasons, not weeks or days, and is averaging only 1.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 22 games.

The Lakers took him ahead of more developed college players such as Sean May (13th overall, to Charlotte), Rashad McCants (14th, to Minnesota), Joey Graham (16th, to Toronto) and Danny Granger (17th, to Indiana) because they were intrigued by his potential.

On the play before Bynum’s dunk, O’Neal bowled over the Laker rookie, sending him sprawling, while slamming in a rebound.

“When you get knocked down everybody’s looking to see if you bounce back up,” Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “Kind of like falling off the horse and getting back on.

“Not so much that he made the dunk, but the fact that he demanded the ball.... And Kobe gave it to him. He wanted it. Just the fact he was aggressive was impressive.”

Still, Kupchak cautioned that Bynum is “a work in progress, for sure.

“He’s played more than I expected, made some significant contributions and helped us win a couple games. To date we’re very encouraged by his progress, yet he’s not developed into an every day player. That’s the journey he’s on.”

Just the same, the Staples Center crowd cheered decisively in favor of Bynum during a timeout a minute after the scrap.

“This was a first glimpse, a first test, [for] L.A. to kind of see what Andrew is made of,” Bryant said. “He’s young, but everybody was kind of waiting to see what this kid was going to be like. I think the fact that he came out and showed his toughness, I think everybody appreciated that.”