BASKETBALL:Ian Katz
HOLLYWOOD’S newest superhero stands 2,16m tall, weighs 136kg and wears size 22 shoes. No wonders of special effects were required to create him, however. He is none other than Shaquille O’Neal, star centre of the Los Angeles Lakers.
O’Neal, who starred as a streetwise genie in Kazaam earlier this year, will make his debut as a benign colossus in the Warner Brothers film Steel next year. As usual, however, his National Basketball Association rival, Michael Jordan, is one step ahead.
Later this month His Airness will unveil his own wildly hyped cinematic offering, Space Jam, in which he trades dunks with Bugs Bunny and the other animated celebrities of the Loony Tunes stable.
There is nothing new about American sporting stars parlaying their athletic skills into modest screen careers, of course. The world’s most celebrated murder defendant was also perhaps the most successful of Hollywood jocks.
As the NBA celebrates its 50th anniversary, however, it seems that the line between sport and show business in the United States is thinner than ever.
The Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson implied as much when he defended his star’s salary demand of $18-million per season (he even- tually got $30-million) earlier this year. Instead of comparing Jordan with another great sportsman, Jackson measured him against one of Hollywood’s top earners: “I’m not sure what anyone is worth, but if Syvester Stallone can get $20-million a picture, then I don’t see why Michael Jordan can’t make $20-million for a whole season.”
The surest sign that the aspirations of some sporting stars have more to do with the big screen than the big game came when O’Neal was tempted away from Orlando with the help of an unprecedented $121-million contract.
O’Neal would have stood a better chance of winning a championship with the more talented supporting cast of Orlando (who would have paid him almost as much, give or take a million or two) but instead Shaq succumbed to the lure of Tinseltown.
“I would rather be a big fish with a lot of other big fish – like Jack Nicholson and Magic [Johnson] – in the big pond,” the 24- year-old explained.
Johnson, a part-owner of the Lakers and formerly their greatest star, elaborated on the thinking of his newest acquisition: “This is it. This is the town. All the things that he is about – rap, movies, commercials – this is the town.”‘ Within weeks, O’Neal was celebrating the launch of his new record label TWIsM (The World Is Mine) in a Los Angeles nightclub.
“Shaquille is multimedia with many talents that he uses,” explained his agent, Leonard Armato. “He’s part of a generation that feels you should try all options.”
Though American football has produced more Hollywood exports, basketball has always had more in common with showbiz than any other United States sport. So aware are the sport’s bosses of their role as entertainers that teams even provide blaring musical accompaniments to every game.
The New York Knicks go as far as to flash appropriate film clips on screens above the court as their players strut their stuff below.
Basketball also has by far the glitziest following. While every sitcom star in the United States is sure to turn up when the New York Yankees make it into the World Series, Spike Lee is in his usual courtside seat for every Knicks home game, however dreary.
In Los Angeles it is not uncommon for the cameras to pan to Jack Nicholson or Charlie Sheen while the players are taking a breather.
But while many of these celebrity fans have long joked about trading their careers for a few moments of sporting glory, NBA stars are likely these days to ask them for advice on agents and multi-picture deals. And not just the big stars like Shaq and Jordan.
There is scarcely an NBA player, it seems, who does not have some kind of “entertainment interest”. O’Neal’s team-mate Cedric Ceballos owns his own recording and dance studio. Kobe Bryant, the rookie guard who joined the Lakers straight out of high school, has already appeared in a TV sitcom. John Salley, the veteran Chicago Bulls reserve, tells USA Today blithely: “I want to do a movie a summer.”
In this age of synergy, it will surely not be long before Spike Lee and Jack Nicholson take to the court to realise their own hoop dreams.