Long Wait for the Right Moment

Jermaine O’Neal and Donnie Walsh noticed each other, but did not speak before Game 1 of the Knicks-Celtics playoff series. The pair share a mutual respect and an unfulfilled past.

O’Neal, a 15-year veteran, just completed an injury-riddled regular season for Boston. In his prime, O’Neal reminded Walsh of Amar’e Stoudemire: an ideal blend of size, speed and athleticism. Still, with Shaquille O’Neal sidelined for the opener, Walsh told friends that O’Neal concerned him.

“He’s been through a lot of injuries, but I guarantee you, he can still shoot it and still box out,” Walsh said. “And he looks at peace.”

The last distinction is important. When Walsh was the president of the Indiana Pacers, O’Neal blossomed into a premier post presence, transforming from a high school prodigy who had limited playing time in four years with Portland despite being the 17th overall pick.

In the 2003-4 season, O’Neal helped lead the Pacers to a league-high 61 wins and the Eastern Conference finals before they lost to the eventual N.B.A. champions, the Detroit Pistons. Indiana had heightened expectations the following season, but they were abruptly changed by the Ron Artest-led melee at the Palace at Auburn Hills.

“If there had been no fight, I think we would have had a chance to win a championship,” said Walsh, now the Knicks’ president.

“When we came back the next year, Ronny really went through a tough year,” Walsh said of Artest. “He was a lot different and basically came in and said he wanted to be traded. It got into the paper and the players saw that and the way they looked at it was that, in the altercation, they suffered a lot for what he did and to hear he wanted to be traded, it really broke the team up.”

The 32-year-old O’Neal said: “Sometimes when you have a disconnect within your team, there’s no way you can win. In order to win a championship and especially, when you’re listening to these guys now, everything has to be perfect. When your team is not together, you can never win. Those apologies came for a reason.”

O’Neal said he had not talked much about that season and the incident.

“I didn’t really know how to feel,” he said of Artest. “I was happy for him as a person. I knew his life away from basketball, so I was happy for him that he won. I know how hard it is to win a championship in this league. Some guys go a long time without winning. But he understood that we could have been there a lot earlier.”

O’Neal is still looking for his title.

O’Neal said, “Sometimes it takes a little bit longer than you want it to take, but it’s better to catch on late than never.”