Shaq Has Had His Fill

Shaquille O’Neal is unhappy with Phil Jackson, the man he once called, “my white father,” the man he urged the Lakers to hire and with whom he won the last two NBA titles, after failing at it for seven years.

He is angry because he believes Jackson can’t be satisfied with the player O’Neal is, or with the effort and sacrifice O’Neal contributed to those championships.

He is angry because he too often reads and hears criticisms of his conditioning and free-throw shooting, among other things, by Jackson, and because he is sure he deserves more respect.

Before the seventh game of their third season together, a 98-97 overtime victory over the Houston Rockets, O’Neal said he is weary of the public jabs and private fines and the rest of the motivational tools Jackson wields.

“He always has something to say,” O’Neal said.

For good reason, responded Jackson, who believes he must ride O’Neal into playing condition, and challenge him to play beyond O’Neal’s expectations.

So, with the rift that for years divided O’Neal and Kobe Bryant recently closed, apparently now a new one has formed, this time between O’Neal and Jackson.

O’Neal said so on the way to the team bus early Thursday afternoon, after a team shoot-around and before he would score 30 points against the Rockets.

After spending two practice days away from the club because of the birth of his child, O’Neal returned to the Lakers in time for their charter flight to Houston on Wednesday afternoon. Only the first day’s absence had been excused, according to Jackson, who fined O’Neal, yet granted that the second absence was due to “a miscommunication.”

O’Neal disagreed.

“There was no miscommunication,” he said. “I’m taking care of business. When it comes to family, I don’t have to call anybody. I’m not calling him.

“And that fine?” O’Neal huffed. “That ... knows what he can do with that fine. You write that too.”

Thus, O’Neal clouded the serenity of the Lakers’ unbeaten start.

“I am mad about everything,” O’Neal said. “I’m mad about a lot of stuff. You’ll see. It’ll all come out.”

O’Neal is sensitive and Jackson is an expert manipulator, and O’Neal often accomplishes more when he believes he has been wronged. When he missed two-thirds of his free throws in the exhibition season, Jackson called the situation “dire” and “scary,” which infuriated O’Neal.

“If people would shut up, I won’t have to change anything,” O’Neal said then. “People always talk too much. They’re never satisfied. With two championships, two [finals] MVPs. Like that’s not enough.”

The next day, at a banquet, Jackson noted O’Neal’s “bad mood,” and tweaked him again on his free throws.

O’Neal refused to play along, steaming through the next several days, but through six regular-season games he has made almost two-thirds of his free throws.

O’Neal and Jackson talked briefly before the game here, but nothing was resolved.

“Well, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it, to be honest with you, because it is part and parcel with the personality,” Jackson said. “Last year, when Kobe and I tussled over direction, that did affect me. It affected me a lot. And I had to spend a lot of time on that relationship ... because I had had a good relationship with him. It was difficult [for him] to let go of the direction he was headed that I didn’t think was good for the team, and our relationship.”

Now, he said, he finds himself trying to keep O’Neal on an emotional edge, angry at something, and sometimes at him.

“I don’t want to coach like this,” he said. “I mean, ... I try to do it with a sense of humor, but he doesn’t see the humor.

“I think once he starts feeling better, he’ll be fine and we’ll be fine. He’s working extra hard, doing extra work, I see he’s doing all that.”

Though he had averaged a league-best 30.7 points through six games, O’Neal has a sore toe on each foot and has been uncharacteristically downcast, recently declining to answer questions about the team’s newfound peace.