Pacers would deal an unhappy O'Neal

Worse than a whining athlete is a young whining athlete making $126 million. To the rest of the paycheck-to-paycheck world, it's ludicrous. To a Hall of Famer who knows what it takes to win, it's intolerable.\nJermaine O'Neal ticked off Larry Bird by saying he wouldn't have signed the seven-year deal with the Indiana Pacers for that surreal sum last month if he knew the new boss was going to fire coach Isiah Thomas. The 6-foot-11 forward-center stopped short of demanding a trade, but made it clear it was on his mind.\nBird, a straight shooter in a suit as he was in a uniform, suggested Wednesday he'd accommodate O'Neal if he wanted to play somewhere else -- provided the Pacers got "something good in return." Bird never had much patience for whining, figuring it got in the way of winning.\nAt the introduction of new head coach Rick Carlisle, Bird said he hoped O'Neal would reconsider his commitment to the team and have a great year.\n"Then if he wants to leave town next year," Bird said, "we'll have to talk about it."\nThey're going to sit down soon, Larry Legend and the Pacers' "20-10 man," the numbers referring to O'Neal's points and rebounds a game and the year his contract ends. They'll try to work out O'Neal's "issues," Bird said.\n"I've been very firm all along, even when I took the coaching job," Bird said. "If we had players that weren't happy here, we would try to do our best to move them somewhere."\nO'Neal was going nowhere fast for the Portland Trail Blazers, riding the bench for most of four seasons before he found his game and an opportunity in Indiana under Thomas. Once the youngest player in the NBA at 17 in 1996 when he and another precocious teen, Kobe Bryant, were rookies and friends, the 24-year-old O'Neal came to regard Thomas as a father figure as much as a coach.\nIt's understandable, even honorable, that O'Neal would stand up for Thomas when confronted with the news of the firing last week in Puerto Rico. O'Neal was cruising to a gold medal with the U.S. team at the Tournament of the Americas in qualifying games for the 2004 Olympics when he found out Thomas was gone. Saying he was "extremely disappointed" and hurt by the decision, O'Neal implied that the Pacers misled him into believing Thomas would be staying.\nAs young as he still is, O'Neal is not naive. He's been around the NBA long enough to know that no coach is safe -- especially one who has an edgy history with the new president of basketball operations, on and off the court. Carlisle is Bird's man, a former Boston Celtics teammate and Pacers assistant coach, as Thomas never would have been.\nO'Neal perfected his pout as a rookie -- unhappy with his bench time, the gray, drizzly weather in Portland and the local fondness for fish. He was grateful to go to Indiana and, for 126 million reasons, he should be happy to stay and not start pouting again.\nThe Pacers need his heart as much as his tall, strong body and soft touch. He can help make them a contender this year. Or, if he comes back sulking, he can break them.\nCarlisle wisely reached out to O'Neal and gave him respect to begin the healing. He kept details of their "nice conversation" on Saturday private, but said he could appreciate Thomas' closeness to O'Neal, comparing it to his own in Detroit with Jerry Stackhouse.\n"I told Jermaine that I understand what Isiah Thomas means to him, not only as a coach but as a mentor, as a friend and as a father figure," Carlisle said. "I will in no way, shape or form try to replace that. Isiah Thomas will continue to be an important part of Jermaine's life and his basketball life and development."\nCarlisle gave Thomas a few figurative pats in his first words as the Pacers' coach, crediting him with instilling the right attitude about winning. Taking over on the brink of the season, Carlisle can't afford to alienate other players who may feel the way O'Neal does.\nIn describing his own abrupt changes lately -- fired from the Detroit Pistons, headed toward a TV job, made a U-turn back to coaching in Indiana -- Carlisle told an anecdote he surely will repeat to his players.\n"Years ago, when I was working for Chuck Daly, he once said that the NBA is a business of dynamic change and great opportunity," Carlisle said. "As I look back upon the events of the last three months, I've never come so to grips with that statement."\nHe spoke about the changes the Pacers have made this summer, at the top and in the locker room, and how those changes create opportunities for several players.\nThis is a team in transition, led by a Hall of Famer with a certain vision of the game -- how it should be played and how players should perform. Bird brought that vision to the Pacers as a coach and failed only by his own high standards. For him it was always championship or bust.\nPursuing that now as a team president, he didn't hesitate to change coaches and he won't flinch from dealing O'Neal, or anyone else, who doesn't like it.