Fox Says Shaq to Hold Back

In the moments after he nearly finished Brad Miller and changed all of their lives, Shaquille O’Neal told Rick Fox he would never be basketball tolerant again.

Since then, others have sensed that O’Neal would show his familiar restraint.

Either way, it could be years before the incident fades.

“I think he’ll go a stretch where he’s pretty good,” Fox said. “Then, it’ll start to build again, assuming they’ll be allowed to pound on him to the point where he can be injured.”

Now that it has been established O’Neal can be pushed, the hard fouls could come more frequently, Fox said, “in hopes there is a flare-up.”

Fox chuckled at the strategy. “If they look at that tape, they’ll realize Miller was a very fortunate man,” he said.

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O’Neal’s representatives, Mike Parris and Perry Rogers, met Friday in New York with Commissioner David Stern and league Vice President Stu Jackson.

The conversations were friendly, and O’Neal’s people focused on the greater good of keeping O’Neal healthy and how the league would benefit from that.

There was no solution gained, as ultimately O’Neal and the game will sort it out a call at a time, or it won’t. That’s how they left it, with a promise to stay in touch.

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Phil Jackson will coach the Western Conference all-stars if the Lakers have the conference’s best record at the conclusion of Sunday’s games, or if the Laker record is second in the conference to Sacramento’s.

King Coach Rick Adelman coached last year’s game in Washington and NBA rules bar the same coach in consecutive seasons.

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Jim Cotta, Laker strength and conditioning coach, and his wife, Tracey, on Monday had their first child, a daughter named Greer Elizabeth.

Tim Brown