Magic Still Claims Tampering

Trying to win the battle after losing the war, officials from the Orlando Magic are still investigating the Lakers’ signing of Shaquille O’Neal and don’t plan to give up the search for evidence of tampering for several more weeks, even after having come up empty over the last two months.

Team president Bob Vander Weide, insisting this is a business matter and not an emotional response to losing O’Neal, said the Cleveland law firm heading the probe for the Magic has yet to come up with a smoking gun that would implicate the Lakers in wrongdoing, but will press on. The only thing uncovered so far is circumstantial evidence--everything from the switch from Coca-Cola to Pepsi, a product that O’Neal endorses, at the Forum to the decision by the Lakers to trade Vlade Divac despite not having another center to replace him.

“We’ve not been asked by the league to close it or put a time frame on it,” Vander Weide said. “We just want to do a thorough search and then get into making some decisions.”

One of those, he said, will not be to push to have the contract voided and O’Neal be made a free agent again. “I don’t think that would be to anybody’s advantage,” Vander Weide said. “Shaquille made a decision that’s best for him. I think the league’s decision would have to deal with financial gains, or losses as the case may be, and certainly the loss of draft picks, if that’s what it comes to.”

Said Jerry West, the Lakers’ executive vice president and the man who spearheaded the signing of O’Neal: “They have to do what they have to do. But I’ll tell you what. It’s really offensive. Really offensive. I like those people down there. They’re very nice. But it’s offensive.”