Shaq Goes on Tirade After the Lakers Lose

SEATTLE —  There was no Sunday silence, not in the Laker locker room, not after Shaquille O’Neal started rumbling, raging and making like a 7-foot-1 interview-session Vesuvius.

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There may not be hell to pay for O’Neal’s expletive-filled eruption directed at the referees after the Lakers’ 92-89 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics at KeyArena, but there sure might be some fines dished out.

“I thought [the referees] did an awful job tonight,” said O’Neal, who scored 27 points but only made 11 of 24 shots--many of them going awry after contact with a Seattle defender. “I felt like they cheated tonight. And you can quote me on that.

“And if David [Stern, the league commissioner] and them want to fine me, try to control people with money, they can take double and take triple, but you can’t control me with no money . . .

“I’ve been taking the same abuse for seven years. So . . . them. Whatever they want to fine me . . . them, I don’t care. Fine me. Period. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Lakers (6-4), and also was their third consecutive defeat on Sunday afternoon on NBC.

But this really was about the volcano blast.

O’Neal, who made 57.1% of his shots in the Lakers’ first nine games, was bumped, leaned on and prodded at by the Seattle defenders, most noticeably center Olden Polynice, who deflected at least one O’Neal thunder-dunk attempt, scored 15 points of his own, and grabbed 17 rebounds.

O’Neal, who went to the free-throw line only nine times, and made five, repeated what he has said in the past after other foul performances: He has to take the matter into his own hands by throwing people around on the offensive end.

“I’m the only guy that they say they’re going to hack-a-Shaq, it’s all in the papers, it’s all on TV, I still don’t get the calls,” O’Neal said. “I know what I’ve got to do.

“I’ve got to start acting crazy to get some respect in this sorry league. I’m going to go crazy. I’ve got to be a wild man.”

A little later, with a little bit of a smile but still enough energy to keep his focus on the lack of foul calls, O’Neal made a wry reference to his role in helping end the labor dispute.

“I end the lockout for David Stern and the guys,” O’Neal said, “and this is how they treat me?”

The chatty Polynice, whose six offensive rebounds keyed the SuperSonics’ key statistic--20 second-chance points, while the Lakers had only 10--shrugged and smiled when O’Neal’s charges were repeated to him.

“You know what? People are getting spoiled, man,” said Polynice, who worked out with O’Neal and several other Lakers for about 10 days during the voluntary workouts before training camp.

“They’re just so used to getting calls all the time. When it goes against them, they just don’t know how to act. . . . If anything, these guys they get all the calls. Superstars get everything. I’m just a lowly individual making the minimum, trying to do my job.”

The O’Neal-Polynice theatrics were not only amusing, they were pivotal in this game.

Without O’Neal providing a steady flow of offense, the Lakers bogged down--he and Kobe Bryant combined to shoot 44 times (more than half of the team total) and make only 19.

And with Polynice, Vin Baker (19 points, seven rebounds) and Gary Payton (26 points, six assists, five rebounds) buzzing around the floor, the Lakers had a hard time putting anything together until the fourth quarter, when they cut what had been a 15-point lead to five, 82-77, with 2:37 left.

With the game on the line, though, Seattle (7-2), coming off an embarrassing 30-point loss to Utah a day earlier, beat the Laker defense for a series of baskets to pull it out.

“When you get beat by 30 points and you come home, you’re naturally going to be playing with a high level of emotion,” Coach Del Harris said of Seattle.

Said Laker guard Eddie Jones: “After they lost like that yesterday, you know they wanted to come back and get a victory to show they still have a pretty good team . . .

“We played terribly, and we still had a chance to win.”

They didn’t, and now they’ve got two more games in two more cities, continuing tonight in Denver.

But, at least it’s not Sunday.

“I told NBC,” said Bryant, who had 23 points and 13 rebounds, “that they’ve got to start scheduling us on Saturday.”