O'Neal doesn't like the Lakers' direction

LOS ANGELES -- The NBA trade market has one huge addition: Call him The Big Commodity.

"If any GM out there wants a hardworking big man who wants to win championships, call Mitch Kupchak, because he will entertain offers," Shaquille O'Neal said.

Kupchak, the Lakers general manger, is about to oversee the breakup of the Lakers. Coach Phil Jackson is out and O'Neal looking to join him.

Now the Lakers are Kobe Bryant's team, if the free agent is not bluffing about wanting to be a "Laker for life" and doesn't end up in prison.

In the end, the team belongs to owner Jerry Buss, whose sentiments have been made clear in the past few days.

"The direction they're going in, if they're going to continue to go in the same direction, I don't want to be a part of this," O'Neal told the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News. "This team, it ain't about me. It ain't about Phil. It's supposed to be about team."

At age 32, O'Neal isn't the same player he was during the team's championship years. He can dominate as before, but only in stretches. The NBA Finals against Detroit were a perfect example; he was very good in Games 1 and 4 and far below that standard otherwise.

O'Neal is under contract for $27.6 million next year and $30.6 million the following season and can opt out after next year.

He wanted an extension beyond the 2005-06 season, but it never happened.

During a preseason game in Hawaii last October, as he ran down the court, O'Neal yelled something at Buss about giving him the money.

No doubt that wasn't received well by the owner.

"When I was brought here by Jerry West, there was a team concept. ... It was something I wanted to be a part of," O'Neal said. "Now no one cares. I told you I'm all about winning championships. Now the organization is different. It seems right now they're trying to pit one person against another."

In his first public comments after the Lakers lost to the Pistons, Kupchak, no doubt speaking for Buss, said Thursday the team would never trade Bryant, and would do whatever it took to keep him.

When asked, Kupchak would not rule out the possibility of dealing O'Neal.