O’Neal Was Frustrated Enough to Seek Trade

They’re both wrong.

It’s not Shaq’s team. It’s not Kobe’s team.

It’s our team.

The Lakers belong to the Torrance plumber and Glendale gardener and Northridge lawyer.

The Lakers belong to those who take out second mortgages for tickets, who make fashion statements with jerseys, who gave up a morning’s wages last spring to line Figueroa and cheer.

Jerry Buss owns the Lakers, but the deed is held by Los Angeles, a city that for 40 years has loved and nurtured and believed, sometimes beyond all reason, always for one purpose.

For winning.

It doesn’t matter to us who gets the credit. It doesn’t matter who is the big dog, or fat cat, or plow horse, or whatever barnyard metaphor is being tossed around El Segundo these days.

To Los Angeles, the Lakers have always been about championships.

If Shaquille O’Neal or Kobe Bryant can’t understand that, they can both leave.

You want to be traded, Shaq? Fine. Go somewhere you can score 35 points and win 35 games.

Or, you want out, Kobe? See ya. Why settle for being the next Michael Jordan when you can be the next Jerry Stackhouse?

If the two best players in the NBA cannot work out their childish differences, if a potential dynasty is blown apart by the short-fused sticks of ego and jealousy, Los Angeles and the Lakers will survive.

Shaq and Kobe’s legacies will not.

Their reputations are at stake. The loss will be theirs.

As their five-year war spilled out onto the front page of this newspaper Thursday, in a spot normally reserved for those little tiffs in the Middle East, Shaq and Kobe need to understand something.

The team is bigger than they are. The town is bigger than they are.

We lost our best basketball player to HIV, and you know what? The Lakers suited up the next day, and we still cheered.

We lost our best baseball player in possibly the worst trade of the 20th century, and what do you know? The Dodgers return to Chavez Ravine in April, and 3 million will eventually join them.

This town has survived far worse than two men who want their names on both the front and back of their jerseys.

If either Shaq or Kobe want to leave like that, fine, don’t let the velvet rope hit you on the way out.

If not, then, enough is enough.

Shaq, shush.

Kobe, grow up.

Both of you, quit the whining and posturing and pettiness and concentrate on your blessings.

Not the least of which is, a chance to become part of what could be the greatest team in NBA history.

You still understand that word, right? Team?

“We are the defending champs, we play in L.A., it’s a great place to live. What is there to gripe about?” Brian Shaw asked.

Oh, you know, the usual.

Shaq is still angry that Kobe is not throwing him the ball more.

So angry that he even gripes after wins. So angry that Phil Jackson says it’s hurting his defense.

So angry that it’s making even his biggest fans--me among them--even angrier.

“I don’t have to coexist with anybody,” O’Neal said in that front-page story Thursday.

Neither did Michael Jordan. But he did. Neither do any of the world’s gifted scholars and athletes. But the ones who are remembered are the ones who do.

In his five years here, O’Neal has done nothing but bring credit to this team and this town.

Not by dominating us, but by coexisting with us.

Why can’t he do the same with Kobe?

Of course, on the other finger-pointing hand, Bryant is sounding just as unreasonable.

“He obviously wants to go back to A.C. [Green] being here and Glen [Rice] being here,” Bryant said of O’Neal. “It’s a different ballclub, a different year. We have new players. Things change. Things evolve. You just have to grow with that change.”

Wait a minute. Just why do the champion Lakers have to grow with that change? Because it means Bryant’s scoring average will grow with it?

Yes, Bryant has evolved into a better, more unselfish player this season. Yes, he saved the Lakers several times in the playoffs.

But, um, yes, there are still four other players on the floor. And the first option is still pounding the ball inside.

And if Kobe really wants to evolve--into an adult--then he will respect that and play within the system.

It was so loopy at the team’s training complex Thursday that the voice of reason was--are you sitting down?--Isaiah Rider.

“They are the two stars, the two main guys, and they need to cut this stuff out,” he said. “They are too good to cry about the things they are crying about.”

It was so nutty, Jackson was sounding like a teacher at a day-care center, solemnly informing parents about a fight between their children at lunch.

“This is really juvenile stuff, isn’t it?” he said. “It’s like sandbox stuff. ‘You got my truck and I want it back or I’m going to throw sand in your face.’ ”

Jackson added, “It’s silly. Let’s get on and be men about our business and appreciate the talent we have and play ball together.”

Here’s another solution:

Shaquille O’Neal wants to be the focus so badly. Fine, tonight he should rent a gym and spent two hours dunking.

Kobe Bryant wants to be recognized for his increased individual skills. Fine, he should rent another gym and shoot jump shots.

The rest of us?

The Lakers are playing the Cleveland Cavaliers at Staples Center, remember?

We’ll watch them.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.