By David Aldridge
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 25, 1992

PORTLAND, ORE., JUNE 24 — Shaquille O'Neal came striding down a side hallway of Portland Coliseum. Behind him, in front of him, around him, was an Ali-type entourage of family, friends, and newborns much too young to realize that their uncle/cousin/big brother/friend of the family represents a new order in the NBA.

To no one's surprise, the Orlando Magic took the 7-foot-1, 303-pound O'Neal with the first pick of tonight's NBA draft. Later, after Georgetown's Alonzo Mourning went second to the Charlotte Hornets and before Maryland's Walt Williams went seventh to Sacramento, the Washington Bullets took N.C. State forward Tom Gugliotta, hoping the ACC's leading rebounder from a year ago can add some scoring and boardwork to a frontcourt sorely in need of it.

Duke's Christian Laettner was taken third by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Ohio State's Jim Jackson went fourth to the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets tabbed Notre Dame's LaPhonso Ellis at No. 5.

With their second pick, the Bullets went for a backup point guard, selecting 6-1 Brent Price of Oklahoma. He's the younger brother of Cleveland Cavaliers star Mark Price, whom the Bullets once signed to an offer sheet.

Price averaged 18.7 points on 46 percent shooting for the Sooners last season, making first-team Big Eight. He transferred to Oklahoma after spending two seasons at the University of South Carolina.

Washington very well might have gone big again with its second-round pick, but the four teams that picked ahead of the Bullets went for the last four good big men.

In the end, the Bullets were more impressed with Gugliotta's all-around game at 6-9 1/2 than that of Williams, whom they couldn't convince themselves would pan out immediately at small forward.

"He was the best player available for us," General Manager John Nash said of Gugliotta. "We needed size and he gives us a combination of passing and shooting. He's the best basketball player of the group."

Gugliotta, with mother Helen, brother Charlie, agent Richard Howell and fiancee Nikki Cormack in tow, becomes the second ACC player Washington has taken with its first round pick in the last four years, the other being Tom Hammonds of Georgia Tech.

"I'm used to watching drafts," Gugliotta said, "and going to them, being in New York and seeing how things get changed. I was never completely 100 percent sure until I heard my name called. I heard they were interested but still, you never know."

"I wanted him to stay on this {east} coast," said Helen Gugliotta, matriarch of the Huntington Station, N.Y., crew.

He'll get that chance. Both the Bullets and Gugliotta were impressed with each other when he came in for a visit earlier this month. They liked his chances at small forward; he liked their enthusiasm.

"It's a very young team with Pervis" Ellison, he said. "They just need players to come in and fill around him. He's the marquee player. ...

"In order for me to have more of a game inside I'm going to have to work on being a little bit more comfortable in the post. I have the ability to do it; I just haven't shown it much and I haven't done it in games a lot. I'm already working on right- and left-hand hook shots."

Williams expressed little disappointment that the Bullets didn't take him, even though there were some on Washington's non-basketball side of operations that coveted the guard from a marketing standpoint.

"I didn't expect anybody to say 'I think this team is going to take me,' " Williams said. "You set yourself up for a letdown. So I just tried to keep an open mind. That's why I wasn't concerned. I didn't really care to go {to Washington} or anywhere. I just thought I was in a fortunate situation and it would be wrong for me to say, 'I'd rather play for this team than that team.' "

Milwaukee took Arkansas forward Todd Day with the eighth pick. Philadelphia went for Southern Mississippi's 6-6 strongman Clarence Weatherspoon at No. 9, and Atlanta closed out the top 10, getting Stanford's Adam Keefe.

Houston took Alabama forward Robert Horry at 11. University of Virginia guard Bryant Stith went 13th, to Denver, and the Lakers bit on guard Anthony Peeler, arrested twice in the last month, at 15.

The Knicks took North Carolina's Hubert Davis at 20, and the Celtics surprised by bypassing a big man at 21 for Georgia Tech guard Jon Barry.

If the Magic hadn't taken O'Neal first, a minor insurrection might have occurred in the Land of the Mouse. But Orlando made the choice, and now has roughly a week to sign O'Neal or face the possibility of four or five teams -- Dallas and Miami leap to mind -- dropping an offer sheet on free-agent center Stanley Roberts.

"I'm not going to come in and try to impress anybody," O'Neal said. "I'm just going to come in and play hard. If I'm a dominant player, so be it. If not, better luck next year ... {but} I think I will be."

Mourning said he was more than comfortable going to Charlotte -- "I'm a southern boy, so it's pretty much home for me," he said. With the Hornets, he will step in immediately in the middle with forward Larry Johnson.

Earlier in the day, the Knicks and Mavericks finally pulled the trigger on the long-rumored Rolando Blackman deal. Dallas got a 1995 first-round pick.

The Milwaukee Bucks wound up dealing both guard Jay Humphries and forward Larry Krystkowiak to Utah for forward Blue Edwards, guard Eric Murdock and the Jazz's first-round pick, 23rd overall.

Tonight, the Pistons sent center William Bedford and the rights to Don MacLean, their first-round choice (19th overall), to the Clippers for center Olden Polynice and second-round picks in 1996 and 1997.