EL SEGUNDO — Whether you are a Lakers fan outside Staples Center, a customer eating a meal at his restaurant or just some random schmo walking down the street, if you happen to make eye contact as Luke Walton crosses paths with you, I dare say with great confidence that he will be the one to smile at you first and reach out quickly with a fist to pound.

That’s how much of a people-person Walton is. And as I made a primary theme in my story reporting Walton’s plight while being stalked by a female fan, he intends to stay that way even after what has happened.

He said his father Bill — far more famous than Luke — never had anything like this happen to him, so that further gives Walton hope that his year-long saga with Stacy Beshear is “just this one incident.” (The ladies out there might chime in here and say Big Bill doesn’t have Luke’s blue-green eyes or irresistible wavy hair, I suppose.)

Here’s what Walton eventually learned was the best approach in dealing with such an overzealous fan: “Just don’t acknowledge her and don’t speak to her, because then she feels you guys have a relationship,” he said.

He admits that he disobeyed that rule that day when she fired a pretend gun at him. Walton said he was leaving teammate Jordan Farmar’s house, and Beshear was lurking there. She wasn’t in a good mood — yelling something at Farmar as he drove off to go get some shots up. Walton headed home for a shower before going to physical therapy for his surgically repaired right ankle, but Beshear intercepted him en route and came into his driveway.

Here’s what Walton said was one of the wacko things that she told him as he argued with her there before giving up and going inside: “She was telling me how she was going to start dating Jordan, because Jordan says she’s pretty and supports her music career, so I’d better get used to having her around. I was like, ‘Listen, I just came from Jordan’s house. I know he has a girlfriend.’ ”

It’s no coincidence that the talk was of dating and being the girlfriend. Generally speaking, what stalkers have in their minds is that they truly have a connection with whomever they are tracking. When they don’t get the attention they feel they deserve, the perception changes as the fantasy relationship brings real frustration. That’s when they might get violent.

“I’m kind of hoping it’s just a freak accident,” Walton said.

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