BASKETBALL: THE DREAM IS AGAIN SWEET FOR THE ROCKETS

When Shaquille O'Neal was little -- 6 ft. 11 in. or so -- he sneaked through a back door of the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio, Texas, to get the autograph of his favorite player, center Hakeem ("the Dream") Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets. It was the first time that the 16-year-old O'Neal had met Olajuwon, who was 26 at the time. "I was just a kid then," says Shaq, "with no money, no clothes, no car, no nothing." Olajuwon obliged, as he almost always does, and Shaq has kept the autograph to this day.

They met again last week, of course, in the N.B.A. Finals between the defending world champion Rockets and the tyros of the Orlando Magic. And again Olajuwon left his signature. By taking the first two games of the series in Orlando, the Dream's team not only set an N.B.A. playoff record for most consecutive victories on the road (seven) but also put the Magic in a deep hole out of which no team has ever climbed -- coming back to win the N.B.A. Finals after losing the first two games on its home court. The O in O-rena is supposed to stand for Orlando, or at least O'Neal. Last week it stood for both Olajuwon and the number of Magic victories.

For most of Game 1 on Wednesday, Shaq fought Hakeem to a standoff, but with just 0.3 sec. left in the first overtime, Olajuwon tipped in a shot to give himself 31 points and the Rockets a 120-118 win. In Friday's Game 2, the 32-year-old center outplayed his larger, younger counterpart for most of the game, which the Rockets took, 117-106. Olajuwon had 22 points in the first half alone, as Houston built an insurmountable lead, and he finished the night with 34 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

The matchup between the Big Os was almost enough to block out all the dancing girls, jumping boys, fireworks, laser lights, eardrum-pounding music and halftime motocrosses that are part of the show in Orlando. The Dream vs. Shaq is the present vs. the future, bop vs. rap, ballet vs. the World Wrestling Federation, humility vs. bravado, Mecca vs. Madison Avenue. It is also a game, as O'Neal put it, of "Who's the Man?"

Despite the rivalry, Olajuwon and O'Neal maintain a mutual-admiration society that has almost nothing to do with the fact that they share the same agent (Leonard Armato). "Hakeem is the best center in the league," says O'Neal. "Shaquille is in a league by himself," says Olajuwon. As far as endorsements are concerned, O'Neal is in a league with only Michael Jordan. Olajuwon, on the other hand, is still waiting to be discovered. Shaq does Pepsi; Hakeem does Oshman's Sporting Goods in Houston.