NBA Fines Shaq $10,000 for Outburst

As if there wasn’t enough going on in Lakerland on Monday . . .

Shaquille O’Neal, who called the referees “cheaters” and all but demanded that he be fined after the Lakers’ Sunday loss in Seattle, was hit with a $10,000 fine by the NBA for his outburst.

O’Neal on Monday said he had made his point about officials letting other players bend the rules when they defend him, and he said he didn’t care about the fine--which was the same amount he was penalized after he slapped Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag in November 1997, although that one also included a one-game suspension.

Call it a Shaq-crifice worth making.

“Just let it be known that they can’t control my thoughts by fining me,” O’Neal said after the fine was announced, along with a $5,000 fine for Scottie Pippen, who also criticized the referees after his own team’s loss on Sunday.

“When they make comments about the referees, they enforce the rules. Well, enforce them the other way . . .

“You can’t control me with money. I love to play the game. Even if I wasn’t getting paid, I’d still play the game . . .

“That’s nothing but a tax. That’s what it is, a tax.”

O’Neal, who earns $182,926 each game, compared the financial hit to his Federal Insurance Contributions Act payments.

“If [NBA Commissioner] David Stern wants to be FICA, he can be FICA,” O’Neal said. “Whoop-dee-doo.”

at Vancouver

7:30, Channel 9

* Site--General Motors Place.

* Radio--KLAC (570 AM).

* Records--Lakers 6-5; Grizzlies 3-6.

* 1997-98 Record vs. Grizzlies--4-0.

* Update--Suddenly, the exhausted Lakers face a must-win game or else come home with a .500 record and an 0-3 mark on this whirlwind three-game road trip. How fresh can the Lakers be, especially after Kobe Bryant played 46 minutes and Eddie Jones and Derek Harper played at least 40 in the overtime loss Monday to Denver?