Lakers-Suns Rivalry Will Come to a Head Thursday Night

Phoenix Suns’ center Shaquille O’Neal will face off against his former team on Thursday night after a recent war of words with Lakers coach Phil Jackson. Shaq may have failed to help the Suns advance past the first round of the playoffs last season after arriving in February, but his presence hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Lakers. Last week O’Neal spoke with a former Lakers beat writer (who now works for the Sacramento Bee) about his former team, claiming that he never really had any beef with Kobe Bryant and blaming Jackson for the constant conflict on the championship-winning Lakers teams of years past. When asked if he would return to the Lakers as a free agent in 2010 as Andrew Bynum’s backup, O’Neal said, “I don’t like to think that far ahead, but anything could happen.”

Phil Jackson, however, was more candid with reporters on the subject of Shaq, telling reporter that he did call O’Neal and Bryant into his office one time, “maybe after the first championship.” It appears as if O’Neal is trying to eat his words, as he denied ever criticizing Jackson: “It just wouldn’t be right to say that now, 10 years later. On the record, Phil has always done right by me. Great guy, he always took care of me. We won championships and it would be idiotic of me to say something bad about him now.” Bryant has remained mum on the subject. The Suns are 8-4 with Steve Nash falling behind compared to last season and it will be interesting to see what happens between Bynum and O’Neal, as they have only faced off for two minutes since Bynum was drafted in 2005. Bynum told reporters with a smile: “We keep missing each other. It’s going to be an interesting experience for me. He’s real big, so I’m just going to try and keep him away from the rim.”

Get all your Los Angeles Lakers tickets at StubHub.com.

Posted in General on November 20, 2008

Leave a comment