COAST TO COAST

The Suns are out of crisis mode for the moment as Shaquille O’Neal learns their pick-and-roll game and they learn just how much fun he is.

Hurling himself all over, O’Neal dived into the third row in last week’s turnaround victory over San Antonio.

Said Coach Mike D’Antoni: “I thought he was going to take out the whole section.”

Phoenix starting to have some big fun

The next game the entire Suns bench dived out of the way as Shaq pursued a loose ball or, as they now say in Phoenix, “The Big Moses parted the Purple Sea.”

Said assistant coach Dan D’Antoni: “All I could see were these two eyes starting to widen out and they were coming right at my seat. . . . I said, ‘Well, I saw the last game.’ ”

On the not-so-sunny side

Unfortunately, the Suns’ biggest problem is the one all the Western powers face: each other.

Having said they were getting O’Neal to try to win a title, the Suns now have to win a title.

Now in mid-transition, Mike D’Antoni, so recently the local darling, is now roasted on local talk radio.

“The last thing Mike D’Antoni has to worry about is fans who are not knowledgeable, who react childishly,” said San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich, a longtime rival.

“It’s a hell of a program. He’s a hell of a coach. Criticism he gets or whatever he got around here is just ignorant.”

Now you see them . . .

Cleveland officials wince at suggestions LeBron James might leave, but Miami officials say up front everything they do is to try to keep Dwyane Wade, who can also be a free agent in 2010.

Wade says he doesn’t want to leave but adds, “You’ve got to look at it when the time comes and see where everything is. That’s just the business of the game.”

Noting James’ endorsement deal with State Farm, the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey suggested a new slogan: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there . . . ‘til 2009-10.”

Pac-10 ratings

Early opinions from NBA people at the conference tournament:

UCLA’s Kevin Love will be higher than the mid-teens, where the draft sites have him.

USC’s O.J. Mayo, who supposedly dropped into the mid-teens, will be higher than that.

UCLA’s Russell Westbrook has a major upside, but his No. 8-12 rankings are loony tunes.

Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless was higher when he played point guard.

Stanford’s Brook Lopez is a top-five candidate.

Thanks for the memories

Unlike your basic NBA star, Jason Kidd is as soft-spoken as he is great but, paradoxically, usually at the center of some intrigue.

Kidd put the New Jersey Nets on the map, asked to be traded, denied asking to be traded and was accused by team President Rod Thorn of moping to force his trade to Dallas.

Appearing gracious in his first trip back, Kidd said Devin Harris, whom the Nets got for him, “is the future.”

And the other young point guard, Marcus Williams?

“He’s the future, too,” said Kidd. “They’re the future. That’s how everybody feels. I can only live in the present. . . .

“Sometimes things come to an end. Sometimes they don’t end maybe in a fairy tale situation where you ride off on a red carpet or you get a set of golf clubs.”

-- Mark Heisler