Shaq

[Douglas342@AOL.com]

    I did not see the foul, nor have I seen replays.  Seems to me that this 
works out well for Shaq, if no one else.  He misses three games at a time 
when he has, says the LA Times, been in considerable pain due to his feet.  
He loses some $700,00 in income.  I think he can afford it.  Refs will be 
quicker to call fouls on defenders.  AND they might go even easier on Shaq 
himself.  Defenders have to be a bit nervous, wondering if their head will be 
the victim of an accurate punch.

   A columnist in the LA Times, however, feels differently:
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And the truth is, the punch solved nothing, other than reducing O'Neal's tax 
base by $714,000.

You think it will change the way the NBA officiates those who try to defend 
O'Neal with shoves and hacks?

If it does, then the referees also will have to begin calling charging fouls 
when O'Neal elbows defenders as he lumbers across the middle.

If that happened, the games would take four hours, or nearly as long as 
anything involving the Angels, and you know how long that would last.

You think, too, that the punch will make one of these low-rent centers think 
twice before taking a punk shot at O'Neal?

Hmmm, let's see, Miller and Oakley got O'Neal ejected from a game that the 
Bulls won, then cost the Lakers the use of their best player for a week. And 
they're supposed to think twice about that?

The truth is that the rougher it gets, the cooler O'Neal must remain. He is 
not only this team's leader, he is also its pulse. When he gets dizzy, so do 
they. When he loses control, so will they.

Being Goliath is one thing. Dealing with all those stones is another. But 
O'Neal needs to figure out a way.

"If a guy makes 85% of his free throws, this problem will go way, I'm sure 
that's what the other general managers of the league will tell me," Kupchak 
said. "But then I would say to them, make a play on the ball, stop making a 
play on the head."

Improved free-throw shooting is indeed one solution. But seeing as it may be 
too late in the season for that, maybe the Lakers should be content with 
improving his feet.

What probably bothered O'Neal more than the fouls Saturday was that he had to 
absorb them on those aching dogs.

O'Neal has long hidden his pain better than anyone. But there's no more 
hiding the beating inflicted by two feet that have to support a frame that 
is, to be generous, several pounds overweight.

Here's guessing O'Neal wouldn't have attacked Miller if his feet had not been 
attacking him first.

Maybe the suspension will help those feet. Maybe even more rest is needed.

And maybe when O'Neal returns, he will admit what few seem capable of 
admitting, that he made a mistake.

If the morality of the issue doesn't sway him, maybe sitting home Monday 
while Kobe Bryant scored a league-high 56 points in three quarters against 
the Grizzlies will.