OUR FATE NOT IN THE STARS; L.A. IS BUILT ON FAMILIES.

Byline: Russ Gough

`LOS Angeles, the city built on stars.''

No sooner had the Lakers signed basketball phenom Shaquille O'Neal to a seven-year, $120-million contract than the Southland's airwaves immediately became filled with the triumphant sounds of this all-too-familiar refrain.

But what we and especially our children unfortunately do not hear enough at star-struck times like these is this more realistic refrain: The great city of Los Angeles never was and never will be built on stars, but on families and communities.

This is no way meant to rain on anyone's Shaq parade. In truth, I am just as anxious as any avid local basketball fan to make my way to the Forum in the company of my young son to see the indomitable O'Neal play.

It's about perspective. Somewhere down the road toward our culture's current and understandable fascination with professional sports, many of our youths - indeed, many of us adults - have somehow gotten the idea that sports celebrities represent some of our cities' best leaders, spokespersons, even saviors. In a word - our best role models.

Perhaps, but unlikely.

As much as sports fans (like me) may not want to admit it, we would be kidding ourselves if we didn't accept the fact that choosing our role models from the world of pro sports - translation: from the world of professional entertainment - can be risky business.

My point certainly isn't that there are no genuine role models in high-profile sports (much less in the entertainment industry generally).

Take your pick from the past or present - Arthur Ashe, David Robinson, Mary Lou Retton, Cal Ripken, Grant Hill, Chris Evert, Julius Erving, Tommy Lasorda, Mike Piazza, Hakeem Olajuwon, Bonnie Blair, Kirby Puckett, Barry Sanders, Nolan Ryan, Pat Summit, George Raveling, Joe Dumars, Sparky Anderson, Nancy Lopez, Joe Montana, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Wayne Gretsky, Gail Devers - celebrity athletes and coaches such as these have consistently given us reason to believe they are models of good character.

However, at best, they're usually going to be secondary role models for us, for when it comes down to the very important business of choosing, learning from, and emulating role models, the fact of the matter is that very few of us ever really get to know high-profile athletes and coaches.

We can undoubtedly learn from them, but it will almost always be in a limited way.

Because despite all that we read in the sports pages; despite all that we see and hear about sports on TV; and despite all those pages we pore over in sports biographies and autobiographies, we can never really get to know these athletes and coaches.

What we do know, and know well, is primarily exterior. Game face. Persona, but not necessarily substance.

A character definitely, but not necessarily character.

For the overwhelming majority of us, what we know about celebrity athletes and coaches ends at exactly the point where the media-hyped images and descriptions end. We seldom get to know what kind of person they really are, what their true character is really like.

They are and remain strangers to us.

All of this is just another way of saying that we need to keep the world of pro sports, including our present Shaq-mania, in perspective. More than anything else, pro sports is a world of entertainment and big business. And sometimes, by it's very nature, it's a world of make-believe. None of this means that world is bad; it just means we can't always depend on what we see and hear there.

That's why it's important that we look, and we encourage our children to look, for primary role models in places that are much more familiar. Like home, school, church, recreational parks, doctors' offices, fire stations, police stations, hardware stores, grocery stores - our own neighborhoods.

These places usually provide us with the best and most dependable role models: My mother, unconditional friend. My teacher, cultivator of knowledge and imagination. My doctor, healer of people. My pastor, priest, or rabbi, caretaker of enduring truths. My athletic coach, model of fair play and sportsmanship. My neighbor, good Samaritan. My dance instructor, portrayer of grace and discipline. My best friend, keeper of promises and secrets.

What's striking about these examples is that they all come from the low-profile world of what we really know - the ``real'' world. In sharp contrast to our favorite sports celebrities, these people we truly know.

We know their personal character. Not perfectly, but confidently.

They're the people we can depend on when it comes to learning from and imitating good character and the actions that flow from good character.

They are our greatest role models for one simple reason: They have character that we know and can count on.

MEMO: Russ Gough is an associate professor of philosophy and ethics at Pepperdine University. This article was excerpted and adapted from his new book. ``Character is Everything: Promoting Ethical Excellence in Sports (Harcourt Brace). His e-mail address is rgoughpepperdine.edu.

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Photo

Photo: (Color) Shaquille O'Neal showed off his new uniformwith Lakers executive vice president Jerry West when he signed with the team.

Associated Press