East All-Stars Cut Off West at the Pass, 11-110

There goes the neighborhood, again.

Just when the Lakers thought it was safe to put their feuding stars back together, Shaquille O’Neal showed up here to make some appearances for the league and his endorsers and to drop some hints about what’s on his mind.

It wasn’t letting “bygones be bygones” as he said recently, or rapprochement, reconciliation or regrets.

It was . . .

Orlando?

Asked by Orlando Sentinel columnist Brian Schmitz if he’d consider going back there if things didn’t work out with the Lakers, O’Neal was quoted as saying: “Look in my eyes. I’m not lying.

“I love Tracy McGrady. I could play with him. He’s the most unselfish player of all the young guys. He’s the model for the next NBA stars.”

Schmitz told him Bryant was saying he’s trying to accommodate himself to O’Neal. Shaq did a slow double take, running his hand over his face, as if in disbelief.

Sunday, O’Neal insisted he hadn’t said it.

“I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “I don’t give a . . . what he wrote, I didn’t say a word of it. I told him, write what you want to write.”

Schmitz stood by his story. The exchange, which took place Saturday, was also vouched for by another writer, Florida Today’s John Denton, who was sitting a row behind O’Neal in the press section.

O’Neal’s agent, Leonard Armato, who joined the Shaq-Schmitz conversation and was quoted as confirming his client’s intentions, said a day later they had just been joking with Schmitz.

In the West dressing room before Sunday’s game, Bryant was cheerfully explaining the Lakers were going to start over in the second half, still ignorant of O’Neal’s comments to the Sentinel, when someone filled him in.

“I have nothing to say,” said Bryant, suddenly growing somber.

In real life, the story--be it a joke, misunderstanding or accurate--means nothing since O’Neal isn’t going anywhere, whether he wants to or not. He’s signed through 2005 and the Lakers are adamant about keeping him.

“I’m in one of those minibuses going out to my plane,” said General Manager Mitch Kupchak, reached by cell phone on his way out of town, “and I haven’t seen the story but I’ll say unequivocally that Shaquille is not being traded anywhere, any time.

“It’s absurd. I said it weeks ago and I’ll say it again today. End of discussion.”

In symbolic terms, however, and for its effect on what remains of Laker chemistry after a half season of internal tension, it means a lot.

O’Neal played four seasons in Orlando and still spends summers there in the lakeside mansion he built in suburban Isleworth. However, when he left in 1996, he called it a “dried-up pond,” and he hadn’t been any more encouraging over the years, until Saturday.

If O’Neal isn’t serious about leaving, he doesn’t mind dropping hints about it and this wasn’t the first time.

After a 37-point win in Phoenix Dec. 28 in which he scored 16 points, O’Neal told Kupchak he wanted to be traded. The Laker GM took it as frustration and neither O’Neal nor Armato raised the subject with him again.

Several weeks later, however, O’Neal reportedly told a teammate that if he hadn’t just signed his three-year extension, he’d want out because of Bryant.

O’Neal rarely complains about Bryant on the record. When they meet, they don’t quarrel or ignore each other. They’re cool enough to laugh and joke, as NBC cameras caught them doing on the West bench Sunday.

Nevertheless, when they’re not face to face, O’Neal has developed a number of phrases and techniques to signal his displeasure, noting, “We have to play smarter,” or “Write what you see,” or suggesting he might leave.

Nor does he seem to be able to let it go. Having cut Kobe a lot of slack over the years, Shaq now seems to have run out of slack.

It was O’Neal who reignited the controversy last month, after it appeared to have died down, when he ripped into Bryant.

Then, after O’Neal was hurt and people predicted his time away would prove beneficial and he said he was letting “bygones be bygones,” he came here and started sending up displeasure signals again.

Not that Bryant is blameless.

He’s not shy about taking over as he did at the end of Sunday’s game. He was out there with Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chris Webber and Jason Kidd, but it was Kobe who took three big shots in crunch time (and made them) and then, on their last possession, kept the ball too long and passed it late to Duncan, whose shot was blocked.

Bryant may have a Teammate Problem--he’d rather he shoot than they do--but he doesn’t have a Shaq Problem.

Beyond argument, Shaq has a Kobe Problem and it obviously continues.

After Sunday’s game, Bryant appeared in the interview room, and answered questions until no one had any more.

“What, no Shaq questions?” said Bryant, grinning as he leaped to his feet. “Great!”

Now to start that second half. It should be, uh, memorable.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

KOBE BRYANT BY THE NUMBERS

28 minutes

19 points

9-17 field goals

1-2 three-point shots

0-0 free throws

7 assists

4 rebounds

3 fouls