Oh me, oh my, O'Neal!!

I thought Kobe Bryant was the worst when it came to going on verbal offensives. Boy, was I wrong.

Now it's Jermaine O'Neal's turn to speak his mind & from what we've heard on Sunday & Monday, it's hard to say just what he's thinking. In fact, it's hard to know exactly which direction he wants to go for this season.

First off, at a charity hoops game in L.A. he told several media sources that he wanted to be traded over to the Los Angeles Lakers, perhaps New Jersey if anyone could help it. He said it best when he said in various reports, "It's time for me to move on...and the Lakers are the team I want Indiana to trade me to." Then on Monday, he did a complete about-face with the media, saying that he wasn't asking for a trade to the Lakers, Nets, or any other team who wants to snatch him up; he really meant to say that if the Pacers should have a oh-so-much-crap season, if this is the rebuilding year everyone is saying this season is going to be, then he'd be up for a trade to either the East or West Coast.

What was that again, Jermaine? Did he just say he wanted to be traded now? Or later, should the Pacers stink to high heavens? At this point, he wasn't about to say, "People are taking this whole thing out of context," or, "They misquoted me, man!! What they're giving you is speculation." He said what he said, even though he realized that his words weren't going to sit well with too many folks, not in the Pacers front office & not in the city of Indianapolis itself, where longtime Pacers fans have had to endure enough nonsensical routines over the past few years or so. And come to think of it, his words, even for all the goodwill in them, might backfire on him.

But why? You may ask. Well, trying to make a reasonable deal in the NBA is a serious job, & the demands he's asking are a bit much for any GM to pull off without any qualms. The Pacers, as it is, are in no mood to make a trade under duress again. They had to let go of Ron Artest after his constant trade demands. They had to let go of Stephen Jackson after that whole nightclub incident. With O'Neal, it's a different story, since there isn't any pressure for the Pacers to get rid of him & send him elsewhere. I mean, his threat of wanting out of the tail end of his contract is farcical; how many people believe that O'Neal will find another NBA team who's willing to pay him approximately $43 mil over 2 years?

Going back to a meeting he had on Monday with Bob Kravitz, a writer for The Indianapolis Star, O'Neal said on Sunday that "...he didn't want to be part of a rebuilding program..." But the very next day O'Neal drew a conclusion that no one wants to hear when he remarked that "...the Pacers are heading nowhere." If memory serves me rightly, such sentiments aren't healthy, & are reminiscent of all the tirades which Kobe Bryant has launched against the Lakers. Try as he might, O'Neal tried the Kobe route in praising his Pacers teammates but to no avail as his ultimate coup de grace confirms: "I think (Pacers president Larry Bird and CEO Donnie Walsh) are definitely trying to get better...We got some more shooting, which was something we really needed to improve. But we haven't reached the point where we can be a contender."

Really, Jermaine? If he wants the Pacers to get him out of town, alrighty then. But I'd suggest that he use the route which Reggie Miller took, that is to say, he didn't mutter any complaints or seethe with discontent when the 2000 NBA Finals team got broke up. Then again, that's O'Neal's personal opinion at work & can you blame him for feeling like he does? His team has been going through the motions for the longest time & since the good old days of Brad Miller, he hasn't had a really good big man to back him up. No wonder then that life at Conseco has been full of hard knocks. But just for one time alone, he shouldn't have popped off at the mouth like Kobe.

Perhaps the maxim "Silence is golden" does have some validity after all. But for Jermaine O'Neal, he has made it perfectly clear that he doesn't like the direction his team is headed & his relationship with the Pacers as a result is strained to the core. And if his ties with Indiana must end, it will be on the Pacers' terms alone, not his.