Cuban Can’t Get Enough of O’Neal

Those who provoke Shaquille O’Neal are rare, as it is believed that he is a more ferocious player when he is out-of-his-mind ticked off.

NBA coaches prefer to cope with the finesse O’Neal over the possessed O’Neal, even if the end result is the same, because it doesn’t ordinarily cost them a game and a power forward or two. Also, O’Neal the Terrible makes free throws more often than O’Neal the Getting Through the Game on Sore Feet, which lately has been the case.

So it is unusual to have an opponent, even one so confrontational as Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban, get after O’Neal, as Cuban did last week, basically saying O’Neal shot free throws like a 10-year-old. He didn’t say a 10-year-old what, but we can assume a human being, and, well, that didn’t make O’Neal happy.

Cuban’s response, now a week before the Lakers play the Mavericks at Staples Center, was, in so many words, So what?

In e-mails exchanged over a few days, Cuban ended his correspondence with great praise of O’Neal, with whom he shares a curious relationship.

“Feel free to write any of this,” Cuban wrote, “as long as you say that I think he is the best of what makes the NBA great. Few people in this world are able to laugh at themselves and not take themselves too seriously. Shaq is the best of them. He knows I don’t take myself too seriously at all, and that’s why we can have some fun.”

Why, then, work O’Neal into a lather before he goes to work on the Mavericks and Coach Don Nelson, among his least favorite folks? First, it’s in his nature to prod. Second, he does not recognize the risk.

“Infuriate him? The Big Aristotle?” Cuban wrote. “You don’t give Shaq enough credit. Unlike his coach, I think he plays hard all the time. I don’t think he gets mad to take it to another level. Talking about his free throws is like him talking about my money. It’s part of the media game and he has fun with it. So do I.

“Shaq and I are friends and I can assure you he always is out to beat us as bad as he can, regardless of anything else said. We have talked in the past and he knows I am going to do what it takes to win, just like I know he is going to do the same. By the way, any idea what his free-throw shooting percentage is since the Phoenix game, when the refs said something?”

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O’Neal has suffered from an upset stomach because he is back on the anti-inflammatory medication that relieves the pain in his feet.... Before Tuesday night’s game, he pulled on a pair of John Stockton’s--very small Utah Jazz shorts--and said, “These better, [NBA Commissioner David] Stern?” He was fined $5,000 last week by the NBA because his were too short.... Robert Horry walked past, saw the shorts and said, “ I’m going to fine you for that.”