Lakers Roasting on an Open Fire (Turn Up The Heat)
Ah, Christmas - the time when many of us celebrate the birth of our Lord, and the time when people in Southern Florida and Southern California will be glued to their TV sets, watching a soap opera.

Here is some recent coverage of the Shaquille O'Neal - Kobe Bryant story.

From Jim Litke:

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Asked whether he expected Bryant to challenge him by driving the lane, Shaq’s first response was, “No. Not at all. It’s not something that I have time to think about, because I’m not that type of player.”

But given a moment to think about it, he couldn’t resist adding. “But of course, when you’ve got a Corvette (Kobe) that runs into a brick wall (him), you know what’s going to happen.”

O’Neal was smiling slyly when he said it, but that little cautionary tale works at several levels. First, it puts Bryant on notice that business is just that — business — and that anyone else who tried to drive the lane would get the same.

Not surprising, it also fixes the differences between the two in terms most favorable to Shaq. It says one of them is fast and flashy — that would be the same guy O’Neal nicknamed “Showboat” not long after they started playing together — and the other is solid; that one is high-maintenance and the other decidedly low-tech....

Winning is still about making everyone play better. While his own numbers are down slightly this season, Wade’s are up across the board — points, minutes, assists, even rebounds. And with Shaq taking Tuesday night off to rest up for the weekend, Wade produced a 33-point, 11-assist performance to lead the Heat past the Celtics, extend their season-best winning streak to nine games and improve their Eastern Conference-leading record to 20-9.

The Lakers, meanwhile, are at 13-11 and still smarting over consecutive defeats by Washington, for the first time in a dozen years, and Memphis, which hadn’t won in 18 tries in Los Angeles, dating to when the franchise began play in Vancouver in 1995.

Their shortcomings are evident, but none are more glaring than the weakness in the middle. Bryant still thinks he can play — or, worse yet, talk — his way out of any jam, and so he tries to paper over the holes by playing at a triple-double pace every night. But all he’s proved is that five guys will almost always beat one. That was Phil Jackson’s mantra, too, and when Bryant finally tired of hearing it, he simply ran off the coach.

Just before O’Neal met the same fate, he warned Lakers owner Jerry Buss that hanging on to Bryant at all costs would come back to haunt the franchise....

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From another story:

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Lakers star Kobe Bryant wants to apologize to former teammate Shaquille O'Neal for mentioning his name during a police interview last year.

O'Neal was told about Bryant's apology offer, and was asked if he had a reply.
"No," O'Neal told the Miami Herald. "None whatsoever."

Bryant appeared on ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption" and "NBA Shootaround" on Wednesday and said he never meant to bring up O'Neal's name when he was being interrogated by police officers. The interview came after a woman accused Bryant of raping her.

"I would apologize for any harm that I brought him and his family," Bryant said of O'Neal.

The Heat will play the Lakers on Christmas Day, the first meeting of the two teams since O'Neal was traded. Bryant wants to speak to O'Neal then.

O'Neal told The Herald he has nothing to prove to Bryant or the Lakers.

''I don't have to make a point,'' O'Neal said. "I'm George Bush. I'm the president. I built that arena, so I don't have to make a point. I think it'll take us out of what we're trying to do for me to go in there and try to make points.''

O'Neal also that many people whom he was closely associated with on the Lakers are no longer with the team. And he does not consider that a coincidence.

''Listen, everybody that had something to do with me has been fired or traded or cut,'' O'Neal said. "My boy Rick Fox was cut, and he's out there doing [bad] movies.''...

During Bryant's interview with [Colorado] investigators [in the Katelyn Faber matter], he said he heard O'Neal had paid up to $1 million to various women to keep quiet about situations like his own. O'Neal, who now plays for the Miami Heat, dismissed those allegations as "ridiculous." There have been no published reports of O'Neal ever being accused of any sex crimes.

The former Lakers center was informed of Bryant's allegation last September, and the relationship between the two was strained throughout the 2003-04 season. After the season, O'Neal demanded to be traded.

"I never intended in any way to mix him into my troubles and difficulties that were going on at the time," Bryant said Wednesday. "Things kind of got blown out of proportion and people really ran with that stuff. I just apologize to him for that."

Bryant said he has passed the word to O'Neal through a mutual friend that he would like to discuss the matter.

"December 25 sounds like a good day to me to kind of talk to him and tell him I never meant in any kind of way to bring any of his personal business out," Bryant said....

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