Shaq Wants Trade as Lakers Argue

L O S  A N G E L E S, Jan. 12 -- For Phil Jackson, it's time to come in fromthe playground. Recess is over.

The Los Angeles Lakers coach said Thursday he's going to take afirmer grip on his team after superstars Shaquille O'Neal and KobeBryant took their long-simmering feud public.

Jackson said he faced similar problems with the Chicago Bullswhen he guided them to six championships during the 1990s.

"I just have to take the order over; it's my job," he said."That's my responsibility, to find the collaborative effort to putthe best team on the court."

Jackson expressed annoyance with the NBA and the media, as wellas the two players involved.

"This is really juvenile stuff, sandbox stuff," he said."It's silly."

Bryant Wants to Turn His Game Up

Perhaps the NBA's two best players, O'Neal and Bryant have hadtheir ups and downs since joining the Lakers in 1996, but they ledthe team to its first championship in 12 years last June.

The Lakers survived a rough stretch last season when they lostsix of nine games, capped by a 103-81 loss at San Antonio last Feb.1. But they closed the regular season by going 33-4.

Although the Lakers have struggled at times this season, nomajor problems were evident until comments Bryant made two monthsago for an article in ESPN The Magazine were made public Tuesday. (ESPN The Magazine, like ABCNEWS.com, is owned by the Walt Disney Co.)

Bryant was quoted as recounting a conversation with Jackson inwhich the coach privately asked him to continue making O'Neal thefocal point of the offense.

"Turn my game down? I need to turn it up. I've improved. Howare you going to bottle me up?" Bryant told the magazine.

Bryant even talked about perhaps playing elsewhere, although hesaid this week he was "going to be a Laker for life."

Jackson said he remembered telling Bryant in November: "Ifyou're not going to be happy here as a player, then I would want tomove you on, if you can't be happy coexisting with Shaq."

‘I Don’t Have to Coexist With Anybody’