OLYMPIC BASKETBALL O'Neal may skip Games if Brown is named coach

He said he'll play if Lakers' coach Phil Jackson heads up the U.S. team.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Larry Brown is among four nominees to coach the U.S. men's basketball team at the 2004 Olympics. If he gets the job, Shaquille O'Neal might not play.
"Larry Brown's the coach? There's a pain on the outside of my knee in 2004," O'Neal said Sunday night. "So, if Phil [Jackson] is not the coach, I probably will not play through the pain."
O'Neal had said during training camp that he'd only be willing to play for the United States if Jackson was named coach.
The U.S. men's senior national team selection committee met Friday to plan ahead for next summer's Olympic qualifying tournament, and Brown was one of four nominees along with Jackson, Pat Riley of Miami and Jerry Sloan of Utah.
"We expect to make an announcement in the next week to 10 days," said Stu Jackson, chairman of the selection committee.
Meeting with reporters in Los Angeles, Jackson sounded resigned to not getting the job. He noted that Brown and others who have coached Olympic teams had previously served as an assistant coach with the team.
"I was asked if I'd be willing to put my name up as coach. I said yes. I won't be disappointed [if not chosen]," Jackson said.
Most international experience
Brown has the most international basketball experience among the four candidates, and the New York Post reported Sunday he is already the leading contender.
Brown coached the U.S. team in 1999 when it clinched a spot in the Sydney Olympics by winning a qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico. In 2000, he was an assistant to Rudy Tomjanovich when the U.S. team won a gold medal in Sydney.
Coaching in those competitions took a physical and emotional toll on Brown, who for months after the Olympics complained of physical and mental exhaustion -- even going so far as to take a brief leave of absence from the 76ers during the 2000-01 season.
"That was a combination of things. I was a little sick a year before, and the Olympics in Sydney went until the day before training camp," Brown said. "In Greece, it'll be in July or August."
Players who are being approached by USA Basketball are being asked to make a two-year commitment, just as they were in 1999 when the U.S. team had to qualify for the Sydney Olympics.
Yugoslavia, which won the World Championships, is the only team that has qualified for Athens 2004.
The qualifying tournament will be held next August. USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller said the possible sites are San Juan, Puerto Rico; Toronto; Mexico City; Caracas, Venezuela; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Three spots available
There will be three spots available from the Americas region, with the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico expected to field the strongest teams.
"If they asked me to be the coach, it'd be the greatest honor going. If they said they had someone else in mind, I'd respect that as well," Brown said.
Brown, told of O'Neal's comments, chuckled and said O'Neal still owes him a favor after choosing LSU over Brown's alma mater, North Carolina.
Coming off a sixth-place finish last summer at the World Championships, the United States is expected to field a top-caliber team that would likely include several players who skipped the World Championships, including O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Ray Allen and Jason Kidd.