Pacers' O'Neal Heats It Up

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MIAMI -- First came a whistle. Then some words. Then the Heat's Udonis Haslem and Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal went jaw-to-jaw, and Shaquille O'Neal held back the other O'Neal and technical fouls were called, and Haslem threw his jersey on the court and ...

You know what? They should just go ahead and make this an annual event, like the Rose Bowl parade or the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Every spring, as the Heat winds down its regular season and people are drumming their fingers waiting for the playoffs, Indiana's O'Neal seems to arrive and do something -- either intentionally or not -- that injects meaning into this otherwise meaningless stretch.

A year ago, his knee caught Shaq on a play, bruising him in a way that didn't go away through the playoffs. That wasn't forgotten.

On Monday, he got into it with Haslem in a way that won't be forgotten, either. Man, did he ever get into it. They both did.

Haslem came down with a rebound, and in the time it took to blow a whistle they were chesting up to each other, spitting venom at the other, forcing coaches and teammates to step in as peacekeepers and the referees to huddle and sort out exactly what happened.

This was the type of personal feud you rarely see surface in such a raw manner in the NBA. But there it was on the court. And there it still was in the locker room afterward.

Haslem sat at his locker 90 minutes after being ejected and talked with emotion about a play last year in which he felt O'Neal pulled him down by the neck. Now he was saying how O'Neal was, "chesting up to me, looking me in the eye, [questioning] my manhood."

And here was O'Neal's response when asked about Haslem.

"Who?" he asked after the Heat's 96-91 win.

He shook his head.

"It's in his best interest to concentrate on getting a rebound and be quiet," he said. "I don't know when he became tough, but all of a sudden he's a tough guy out there. Shut your mouth."

The last thing you wanted to see if you're a Heat fan right now was some fight with the potential for someone to get hurt. But you have to admit this made an entertaining night of a March game. It added context to the Heat's rally, from down 14 points in the third quarter to winning, 96-91.

It started with 5:25 left in the half when Haslem and O'Neal got tangled up going for a rebound. That happens. Haslem had the basketball. He had O'Neal's arm somehow, too. There was some pulling and pushing and some talking.

When their bodies became unknotted, their mouths began. This wasn't some one-night stand, either. This goes back a while and involves the Pacers' streak of wins against the Heat, with one of the key questions for Haslem being whether he can defend O'Neal.

Shaquille O'Neal put his hand around Jermaine's neck. "He was saying, `Cool down, cool down,'" Jermaine said. "We're friends. I see him around."

But Haslem and O'Neal didn't calm down. They yelled at each other, up close. Teammates stepped in. Indiana coaches, too. Then the referees huddled and slapped both players with technical fouls. They added a questionable foul on Haslem that again pushed his button.

"That was a terrible call," he told the ref.

That resulted in a second technical on Haslem. And an ejection. And there he sat, after the game saying, "I've heard 10 times worse than that [said to refs] with nothing happening," he said.</div>

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Jermaine didn't get everything on that punch, he slipped.

why are we even talking about fighting? These two need to grow up.