Shaq says if you don't like Malone, there's something wron..

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/heat/content/sports/epaper/2004/12/14/a1c_crous
e_1214.html

"Shaquille O'Neal has always been one to speak the truth," the 7-foot-1
center said Monday night before the Heat's 106-83 victory against the
Washington Wizards. "That's it."

"I'm very surprised how it came out," O'Neal said. "I've never seen anything
like that before. I thought him and Karl were best friends."

Last season, Malone's first with the Lakers, "Karl was . . . the liaison
between me and that guy," added O'Neal, who steadfastly refuses to speak
Bryant's name. "I was always under the impression they were closer than they
were."

When O'Neal was with the Lakers he would talk as if he were the general
manager. Bryant acts as if he's running the organization. The difference
could be the organization's undoing.

Malone, said O'Neal, "is a legend. If you don't like Karl Malone, there's
something wrong with you."

O'Neal said he spoke to Malone on the phone the other day. He wouldn't say
exactly what they talked about, only that it wasn't "about that (stuff)
that's going on out there."

There are rumors that if Malone came back to play another year, he would
wind up in Miami or San Antonio. "I don't know what Karl's going to do,"
O'Neal said. "I don't know who he has talked to. I don't know if he wants to
come back and play."

One thing O'Neal can say for sure is that Malone, like O'Neal and Jackson,
won't leave L.A. without scars. "I know Karl's hurt," O'Neal said. "I can
tell he's hurt. I know he's (angry)."

It must be weird, we said, viewing the Lakers' soap opera from afar after
eight years of playing a starring role in it.

"It's not," said O'Neal, who will face the Lakers for the first time on
Christmas Day. "It's funny. It's funny because now that I'm gone the
sunglasses are off. Now you can see everything very clearly."

So he was the filter. Is that what he's saying?

"Yeah," O'Neal said. "I was the filter."

Like anybody who has escaped an unhappy situation, O'Neal is grateful to
have gotten out.

"I'm happy where I am," he said, then went out and demonstrated as much by
collecting 40 points and 12 rebounds. "I think it's unfair to (his Heat
teammates) to keep talking about L.A. It's not something that I worry
about."

The truth? It must be something that bothers him or O'Neal wouldn't have
veered from a question about Monday's game to point out that if you look at
the history of the Lakers, "they always take care of the guards. So I knew I
was dog meat. Luckily I'm the high-priced dog meat."

In article <cpm115$m0c@dispatch.concentric.net>, "s_knight8"
<s_knight8nospam RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote:

> Malone, said O'Neal, "is a legend. If you don't like Karl Malone, there's
> something wrong with you."


That's probably true ...



> "I'm happy where I am," he said, then went out and demonstrated as much by
> collecting 40 points and 12 rebounds. "I think it's unfair to (his Heat
> teammates) to keep talking about L.A.


.... and then he says, in so many words, what Kobe said on the radio.
(Not exactly the same, but close.)