Kings Have a Lot on the Ball

The Sacramento Kings have sent letters of congratulation and apology to the Lakers and Shaquille O’Neal in regard to the defaced basketball O’Neal used to score his 20,000th point.

The letters -- one to O’Neal’s representative, Perry Rogers, and copied to General Manager Mitch Kupchak -- are signed by King owners Joe and Gavin Maloof and General Manager Geoff Petrie.

The Kings have determined that one of a handful of fans seated behind the scorer’s table at Arco Arena likely wrote a derogatory remark on the basketball during a fourth-quarter timeout in the March 20 game.

A scouting video of the game shows the ball disappear from the table for a short period and then return when the game resumed, according to King spokesman Troy Hanson.

In the letter to O’Neal, the Kings ask what he would like them to do with the milestone basketball.

“Tell them to send me my ball,” O’Neal said after Thursday’s game in Houston.

Joe Maloof told the Sacramento Bee, “I hope Shaq accepts our apology, because that guy could take me and dunk me.”

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O’Neal has been himself again recently, a great relief to the organization, of course. Only a month or two ago, there were fears that O’Neal might never regain his quickness or his elevation, expressed publicly by Coach Phil Jackson.

“I’m thankful, I guess, more than anything else, that he’s been able to find a way to return to that quick level,” Jackson said. “That activity he’s shown on the floor has really helped our basketball club. It’s given us a belief we can win games.

“This whole team’s hopes cling to Shaquille. There’s no doubt about that. We’ve known that. As this franchise has gone on over the last five years and had to shed talent because of the salary cap situation, we came to rely on the talent of Shaquille and Kobe [Bryant] a lot more.”

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Michael Jordan comes through Los Angeles on Friday for what many assume to be the last time, but he has fooled everyone before, and Jackson has said goodbye before, and this time he’s ready.

“Well, in the process of doing a tribute to Michael,” he said, smiling, “I went back to a tape from ‘Saturday Night Live’ where they sang a song, ‘Michael, Don’t Go.’ ... Maybe we could have them play that again. This is the fourth time, we could have them play it. I’m doing that in hopes that next year when I offer him a free-agent contract in L.A., he’ll say, ‘Sure, why not? I’ll come back and play one more year.’ ”

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Tyson Chandler of the Bulls told Chicago newspapers that he’d like to work out with O’Neal in the off-season.