Shaq Gets Big Bucks Extension

Now, Shaquille O'Neal can afford to buy as many cars as he wants.

And as many doughnuts.

O'Neal, who came within one vote of becoming the NBA's first unanimous MVP last season, agreed to a contract extension at maximum terms of three years and $88.5 million with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The extension means O'Neal, who led the Lakers to their first NBA championship in 12 years last June, is under contract for six more seasons for over $152 million.

Getting the maximum allowed under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, he will earn $26.5 million in the 2003-2004 season, $29.5 million in 2004-2005, and $32.5 million in 2005-2006.

"Usually, Friday the 13th would be a bad luck day," O'Neal said at a news conference. "Today is a good luck day for me. If this day never would have come, you never would have heard from me, I would have just moved on.

"I look forward to ending my career as a Laker. Having one championship is like having one car it's not enough for me. Last year was a start for us, hopefully we can keep going. I'm never going to be satisfied with just one."

The 28-year-old center joined the Lakers as a free agent in July 1996, signing a seven-year contract for more than $120 million. He played his first four NBA seasons for the Orlando Magic after three years at LSU.

"I'm happy, you might not see it on my face," he said. "My dreams have never really ranged this far. I'm truly happy.

"I'm not really a big spender, I can get a lot of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. The way I'm going to celebrate is I'm going to go get all my teammates gifts. Most of them said they wanted Rolexes. So I'm about to go to the mall and hook them up, because without them none of this would be possible.

"They made me look good, (Lakers owner) Dr. (Jerry) Buss has taken care of me, so I'm going to make them look good."

O'Neal won his second NBA scoring title last season, averaging a career-high 29.7 points on 57.4 percent shooting. He was second in rebounding with a 13.6 average, and also averaged 3.03 blocks and a career-high 3.8 assists.

"This is clearly one of the brightest days in this franchise's history," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said, adding that he believes O'Neal already ranks among the all-time NBA greats.

"The only thing he was missing was a championship," Kupchak said. "In the past six or seven years, he's dominated the game. There have been some players who have put together three, four, five incredible years. I think 10 years is a benchmark, people look at 10 years as a span of time to measure greatness. He's very close to 10 years.

"(Bill) Russell, (Wilt) Chamberlain, Kareem (Abdul-JabbarHakeem (Olajuwon) quite frankly, he could be there right now."

Buss returned from vacation Oct. 1, and worked out a deal with O'Neal's agent, Leonard Armato, in a short period of time.

"I think we've pretty much had the highest-paid player for a quarter of a century," Buss said. "We have another one. I think the length of the extension and the amount of money was never an issue. There are a number of small things that go into these contracts, it just takes time. I don't want to go into the details."

Buss said last week he intended to have the extension completed before the Lakers open defense of their championship Oct. 31 at Portland, the team they beat in the Western Conference finals last June.

The Lakers then beat the Indiana Pacers in six games to win their first title since 1988 and the days of Showtime, and O'Neal became only the third player to be selected MVP in the regular season, All-Star Game and NBA Finals. Jordan did it twice, in 1996 and 1998. Willis Reed did it in 1970.

In the six games of the finals, the 7-foot-1, 315-pound O'Neal averaged 38 points and 16.6 rebounds. In his team's clinching victory over the Pacers, he had 41 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.

O'Neal will be 34 when the contract expires. When asked if this might be his final contract, he replied, "I really can't answer that."

Said Kupchak: "Maybe we can look at another six or seven-year extension at that time."

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