[外電] O'Neal wants last word in flop flap
Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3958376
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O'Neal wants last word in flop flap
Updated: March 7, 2009, 1:18 AM ET
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HOUSTON -- Shaquille O'Neal is still seething about Stan Van Gundy
criticizing him for allegedly flopping, even after the Orlando coach
apologized.
"Don't play with me," O'Neal said Friday morning, where the Suns were
preparing to play Yao Ming and the Rockets in the evening. "Seriously, don't
play with me. Like I said earlier, I don't like front-runners. I think he
used the wrong choice of words. Flopping means that, hey, Shaq does that all
the time. The rules say, you take it in the middle, you've got to fall back.
And that's what I did."
The Flop Flap started Tuesday night, when Shaq and the Phoenix Suns played
the Magic in Orlando. Dwight Howard made a spin move in the third quarter,
O'Neal fell trying to draw an offensive foul, and Howard easily dunked.
Afterward, Van Gundy said he was "shocked and very disappointed" that O'Neal
would resort to such a tactic. O'Neal fired back, calling his former coach in
Miami "a front-runner" and "a master of panic."
Van Gundy said he was sorry Thursday and jokingly called Shaq "a very
sensitive guy."
Although Shaq said Friday the spat with Van Gundy was finished as far as he
was concerned, he still wanted to have the final word.
"It was a cheap shot," O'Neal said of Van Gundy's original barb. "They won
the game, move on. My thing is, I don't ask for a lot, but I demand my
respect, especially from a guy like that.
"It's over now. He said what he had to say, I said what I had to say. Don't
play with me."
Van Gundy and O'Neal have developed an icy relationship since Shaq went to
play for Van Gundy in Miami for the 2004-05 season. The Heat won 59 games
that season, but it ended with a loss to Detroit. After the game, O'Neal said
he didn't get the ball enough.
O'Neal said he and the 7-foot-6 Yao should be the ones complaining about
players who flop. O'Neal said smaller players often get the benefit of the
doubt from referees when they try to guard them.
"Flopping has become a big concern, but I just take it as a sign of ultimate
respect," O'Neal said. "[A player thinks], 'I can't guard you. I'm just going
to fall down and cry to the refs.' Most of the time, the ref believes it.
"It's always David and Goliath," O'Neal added. "The little man always gets
it. Their thing is, 'You're big and strong, you can take it.' But my point
is, a pinch feels the same to me as it feels to you. Like I always try to
tell you referees: You guys make the rules up, so a foul is a foul. It
doesn't matter if a guy is bigger and stronger."
Yao complained about the officiating after he fouled out of Wednesday's
101-94 loss in Utah. His sixth foul came after he collided with Ronnie Brewer
with 1:23 left in the game.
Yao agreed with O'Neal that referees seem to have a double standard.
"I know for the rest of the players and the rest of the referees, they don't
face us every night," Yao said. "We face those rules every night. That makes
us feel different."
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