Flat-Tire Incident Is Behind Them

In the moments before the Lakers’ shoot-around Thursday morning, Phil Jackson walked to Shaquille O’Neal, leaned over, and said something in his center’s ear.

O’Neal shook his head.

That, apparently, was that.

“I should have [attended practice],” O’Neal said, “but I didn’t. He just has to do what he has to do.”

O’Neal will be fined for missing Wednesday’s practice. Jackson will move on. The organization, on the verge of a postseason that will conclude with a fourth consecutive championship or not, would move on as well.

“Shame or remorse?” Jackson said before the Lakers played the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night. “No. There wasn’t anything like shame or remorse.”

O’Neal turned his cap around and answered a few questions after the Lakers had defeated the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night. He said he hit “potholes,” confirmed that he had two flats, and nothing with which to replace them.

“I don’t have any spares,” he said. “I’m sitting on 26 [-inch rims]. I don’t have spares, I don’t have Triple-A.”

Jackson, at his pregame press briefing, seemed satisfied with O’Neal’s explanations for why he could not overcome a flat tire or two and, perhaps, if he made any effort to reach the El Segundo practice facility.

“By tap,” Jackson said, “he’ll be fine.”

General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Jackson spoke by telephone Thursday. Kupchak took part Wednesday night in the 25th anniversary celebration of the Washington Bullets’ NBA title, then drove to Portsmouth, Va., without incident.

“Phil really handles this type of infraction,” Kupchak said. “We don’t consider it a big issue.”

From Bakersfield, where O’Neal cast the Kings as “Queens” before an exhibition game, to the Sepulveda Pass, where Officer O’Neal apparently ran over his own nail strip, it has been another odd season for him. O’Neal generally glides through the difficult moments, as does Jackson, who wrote off the practice day missed.

“It was a day that we talked about being a therapy day, mental, physical things we need to do,” Jackson said, “that keep us in really good shape this time of year.”

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On Monday afternoon, O’Neal, his agent, Perry Rogers, and his business manager, Mike Parris, met Kupchak for lunch.

O’Neal’s contract extension, which he cannot receive until September, was not discussed, but the meeting did possibly cool any lingering issues between O’Neal and Kupchak. O’Neal occasionally seems irritated with the general manager, most recently when it appeared to O’Neal the Lakers had forgotten to honor him for scoring 20,000 points.

“Shaquille and I have had a couple of talks,” Kupchak said. “We’re fine. It’s part of working with Shaquille.

“Personally, I don’t make a whole lot of it. He does the same thing with Phil. If he has to vent, I’m glad he does it with Phil and I.”

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James Worthy and Chick Hearn, named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame this week, were honored in a ceremony before Thursday night’s game. Marge Hearn accepted on behalf of Chick, who died in August.