<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">On Sunday at a charity basketball game in Los Angeles, you told several media outlets you absolutely wanted to be traded by the Indiana Pacers to the Lakers or maybe New Jersey. "It's time for me to move on,'' you were quoted as saying in various Web reports. "And the Lakers are the team I want Indiana to trade me to.'' On Monday, or Damage Control Day, you told several local media outlets you weren't demanding a trade to L.A. or New Jersey or the dark side of the moon; that what you really said is, if the Pacers stink this year, if this turns into a rebuilding year, then you'd prefer a trade to the East or West Coast. So, again, which is it? Trade me now? Or trade me later, but only if the Pacers are lousy? And please -- PUH-leeze -- don't give me the whole "I was misquoted'' or "it was taken out of context'' excuse. Every report out of Los Angeles the other day had the exact same words. Everybody got it incorrect, all in precisely the same way? No. O'Neal said what he said. Then, when the words O'Neal uttered Sunday landed here Monday, he realized they weren't going to play well, not in the Pacers front office and not in Indianapolis, where the basketball fans have had their fill of nonsense. So it was time to go on the offensive, dip into the ever-diminishing reservoir of goodwill. O'Neal is a smart guy, but mouthing off in L.A. wasn't smart, not at any level. Even if you agree with his general sentiment -- and I do, having suggested the Pacers have done next-to-nothing to improve so far this summer -- this was not a good strategy. (Although it probably wasn't a strategy, just J.O. being J.O., saying what he thought everybody wanted to hear.) If anything, O'Neal's words may backfire, making a palatable deal with Los Angeles or anybody else even more difficult to execute. There's nothing tougher in the NBA than making a decent deal when everybody else knows you have to move a player. The Pacers are not going to be forced again to make a trade under duress. They had to get rid of Ron Artest after Artest's trade demand. They had to get rid of Stephen Jackson after the nightclub incident. There's really no pressure on the Pacers this time, no matter what O'Neal says or doesn't say. If the Indiana front office doesn't find a trade that works, it will just let him opt out at the end of next year and use the big bucks to sign a free agent or two.</div> Source: Indy Star
