O’Neal Rests, All-Star Game Is Up in Air

Shaquille O’Neal spent the early part of Wednesday evening in a slick gray-on-gray suit, searching behind wooden doors for Coach Phil Jackson.

An hour before the Lakers would play the Chicago Bulls, O’Neal, because of his sore and arthritic big toe, decided he would sit it out. In the season of the Lakers’ three-peat effort, O’Neal has missed nine games, six because of the toe, three--some say--because of the frustration brought by it.

O’Neal again walked through and around the assembled reporters without talking, a habit he acquired even before he took a swing at Chicago’s Brad Miller.

Jackson clearly supported O’Neal’s choice to skip the game against the Bulls, and he’d probably prefer to have O’Neal miss Sunday’s All-Star game in Philadelphia as well. That, however, remains up to O’Neal, who did not play in last year’s game because of a sore right foot, and Don Nelson, the Dallas coach who won the right to coach the Western Conference team.

“It’s out of my control,” Jackson said of the All-Star weekend. “I can control this game tonight, encourage him to sit it out, get some rest. Sunday’s game is another venue, an entirely different thing. That’s the league’s game.”

Still, a substantial tour in the All-Star game would seem to undermine the entire point of his resting against Chicago. The Lakers had hoped to use the airiest part of their schedule to get O’Neal at least eight days off and perhaps, if he also sat out Tuesday against Washington, 10 days.

“My message to Shaq will be, ‘If you want to go to the game, participate in the game, fine,’” Jackson said. “Any coach that’s reasonable asks the players on the team before the game, ‘Who’s injured?’ ‘Who’s sick?’ ‘Who wants to play minutes and who doesn’t?’”

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Laker assistant Tex Winter underwent tests Wednesday and will have more today to determine the cause of what appeared to be an incident of acid reflux in Philadelphia last week. Doctors have determined that Winter’s irregular heart beat probably was caused by the bout.

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Tim Brown