Shaquille O'Neal suspended for 3 games

LOS ANGELES - For the second time in three weeks, Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O&#39;Neal is resting his aching feet. This time, it isn&#39;t by choice. <br> <br> O&#39;Neal was suspended for three games without pay and fined $15,000 by the NBA on Monday for throwing a wild haymaker at Chicago&#39;s Brad Miller in the fourth quarter of the Lakers&#39; 106-104 overtime loss to the Bulls on Saturday night. <br> <br> Had the roundhouse right from the 7-foot-1, 341-pound O&#39;Neal connected with full force, Miller would have probably been seriously injured and O&#39;Neal would have received a much longer suspension. <br> <br> The suspension will cost O&#39;Neal more than $700,000 in lost salary. He did not speak to reporters following the Lakers&#39; shootaround in nearby El Segundo on Monday and sat out a 120-81 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies several hours later. <br> <br> O&#39;Neal will also miss Wednesday night&#39;s game against visiting Miami and Saturday&#39;s nationally televised game at San Antonio, the first meeting of the season between those teams. He will be eligible to return next Tuesday night against Denver. <br> <br> Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said he spoke with O&#39;Neal for about 30 minutes Monday. <br> <br> ``Clearly, he&#39;s concerned,&#39;&#39; Kupchak said. ``He expressed his frustration, he&#39;s remorseful for what he did.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Kupchak said he could understand O&#39;Neal&#39;s frustration, but made it clear he didn&#39;t approve of his actions. <br> <br> ``As an organization, we don&#39;t condone that type of activity,&#39;&#39; Kupchak said. ``He could get injured, he could injure someone else.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The NBA also suspended Miller for one game for committing the flagrant foul that led to the fight. Bulls forward Charles Oakley was suspended for two games - one for accumulating too many flagrant foul points; the other for his simultaneous flagrant foul against O&#39;Neal. <br> <br> Oakley was fined $10,000, and Miller $7,500. <br> <br> Miller and Oakley fouled O&#39;Neal hard as he received the ball in the low post with 2:44 remaining in the fourth quarter. O&#39;Neal immediately went after Miller with his fists, leading to a wild melee in front of the Chicago bench. <br> <br> Miller and Oakley committed several hard fouls against O&#39;Neal earlier in the game. <br> <br> ``I saw it coming from the start of the game; it was pretty physical,&#39;&#39; Kobe Bryant said following the shootaround - several hours before scoring a career-high 56 points against the Grizzlies despite sitting out the fourth quarter. <br> <br> Bryant said O&#39;Neal warned Miller to stop the banging or he&#39;d retaliate. And that&#39;s what happened. <br> <br> ``He definitely gave him fair warning,&#39;&#39; Bryant said. ``I told the refs, &#39;You have to clean this up or somebody&#39;s going to get hurt out there, it&#39;s going to get ugly.&#39; They said, &#39;OK, we&#39;ll do the best we can.&#39; <br> <br> ``There&#39;s only so much a person can take as far as physical abuse. I&#39;m not saying fighting is an option, it&#39;s a last resort. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> This is the second suspension for an on-court altercation in O&#39;Neal&#39;s career. Early in the 1997-98 season, he was suspended one game for slapping Utah center Greg Ostertag following a morning shootaround. <br> <br> ``Shaq feels embarrassed about it, I&#39;m sure,&#39;&#39; Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``(But) the nature of a man is to defend himself. He told me he was sorry it happened and he would keep it under control. I told him I don&#39;t condone what he did, he hurt the team. <br> <br> ``For a guy that didn&#39;t get a punch connected, I never saw a punch landed, it was pretty extreme,&#39;&#39; Jackson said of the suspension. ``(But) we&#39;re not going to complain. I think we&#39;ll accept this and say it&#39;s fair.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Jackson also said O&#39;Neal, who recently spent five games on the injured list because of a pain caused by an arthritic right big toe and a sore left little toe, accepted the suspension. <br> <br> Asked if his sore feet was a factor in what happened, Jackson replied: ``That&#39;s a possibility, but it&#39;s really not an excuse.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Like many NBA players have done, Oakley and Miller justified the hard fouls by saying O&#39;Neal is so strong that he can repel anything less than a hard foul and still manage to get his shot off. <br> <br> Other NBA players have used the same strategy throughout O&#39;Neal&#39;s career, in part to take advantage of his poor free-throw shooting. <br> <br> ``The league made its decision, and obviously we respect the decision,&#39;&#39; Bulls general manager Jerry Krause said. ``We don&#39;t think our players are dirty players.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> NBA vice president Stu Jackson, who issued the suspension, would not comment.