Shaq’s Outrage Not Shared By Readers

So Shaq, you’re upset that some critics have picked the Spurs to finish ahead of you in the West. So you show your lack of maturity and mental toughness by calling Tim Duncan “too light” and comparing yourself to Mike Tyson. Does this mean that Duncan and Robinson should worry about your bite as well as your bark during the next Laker-Spur showdown? Why don’t you shut up, grow up and put up and show the polish and class of a Tim Duncan, which has made them favorites ahead of the Lakers to begin with!

J. SCOTT SCHEFFER, Adelanto

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Why does anybody care what Shaq, an overgrown child, thinks? Why does anyone care about the basketball season, for that matter? Does it matter that the players showed the public what they really think of them in both actions and in words? Wake up sports fans, and send a message to these losers! Don’t give them the adoration that they seem to think they deserve! Don’t support their greed! And, most of all, don’t waste your money!

With spring training right around the corner, and being in the heart of the hockey season, we have plenty of diversions to keep us busy. Then we can let the NBA know what we’re really saying. “Baskets? We don’t need no stinking baskets!”

JON NICHOLS, Sunland

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I am constantly exasperated when people call Jerry West the best GM in the NBA. He hasn’t fielded a championship team in a decade. Among his blunders was trading away Sam Perkins for Benoit Benjamin and Doug Christie.

I totally lost respect for Jerry West when he put his selfish agenda before the team and aired his dirty laundry publicly. His constant whining about only being paid $1 million was so heartbreaking I almost cried. Not!

Even though I hate the Bulls, Jerry Krause was the best GM by far in the ‘90s.

YONG HANPAK, Los Angeles

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Well it didn’t take long for basketball to get back into full swing. After two years in the league, poor Lorenzen Wright doesn’t want to play unless he gets a six-year contract at $10 million per year. Lorenzen who? I’m sure fans across the country are anxious to fill their local arenas to see him play.

Admittedly, the Clippers are a pathetic organization that is incapable of doing anything right. But when on the second day of training camp a relative nobody to 99% of NBA fans starts crying, I can only sympathize with the owners. Is it too late for another lockout?

TOM INGHAM, Rancho Santa Margarita

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The Times should conduct its own investigation to expose the corruption, greed, featherbedding and excess.

Forget the IOC. Why does it take four coaches to run our pro basketball teams?

DON VICKERY, Pacific Palisades