Michael Ventre

What is missing in the NBA thus far in the 2007-08 season is a feud, a good, old-fashioned verbal donnybrook that ratchets up interest. It is especially gratifying around Christmas. There is something about the holiday that, while it brings out the hugs and kisses and sips of eggnog, it also triggers sniping and spitting and dollops of poison.

In the recent past, the nation has watched as Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal have met on the court in the annual Christmas fracas between their respective clubs, the Lakers and Heat. The fuel from their mutual hatred and petty jealousies jacked up the ratings, and gave people something to do after they opened their gifts and made the requisite chit chat.

Alas, all nasty things must come to an end eventually. Kobe and Shaq seemed to have put away the knives, and not coincidentally, the league put their marquee matchup in the attic along with the string of lights, the tree stand and the cardboard Santa. Christmas traditionalists who love getting the family together all toasty around the fire to watch Kobe and Shaq exhibit lots of naughty and no nice are out of luck.

Or are they?

Mike D’Antoni of the Phoenix Suns and Phil Jackson of the Lakers aren’t close to being in the kind of shape as the aforementioned superstars — wait, check that; has anyone taken a good look at Shaq lately? — but their distaste for each other shows promise. They share the kind of vitriol that could develop into an annual Christmas ritual, perhaps starting on  Tuesday when the clubs meet at Staples Center in a yuletide extravaganza.

The most recent friction started on Nov. 2, an unexpected 119-98 blowout perpetrated by the Lakers on the Suns’ home floor. With Phoenix down, 111-81, and 4:45 remaining, D’Antoni called a timeout, but then Jackson followed with one right after it. D’Antoni felt Jackson’s maneuver “disrespected our players” and he said Jackson may want to save the mind games for the playoffs “when we bust them every year.”

In comments afterward, Jackson said the incident gave him a better understanding of D’Antoni because “his immediate response is to think it was about him and not his team.” D’Antoni followed by saying, “Hopefully, we’ll have the same opportunity to give it back to him.”

Ta da! Here were are, at Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you want to see two high-profile Western Conference coaches try to stick it to each other.

In one corner you have D’Antoni, who presides over a talented team with a two-time MVP at point guard that plays a thrilling style of basketball. However, each year the Suns are said to be among the favorites to win it all, and each year they don’t, leading to the perception that D’Antoni and his charges are either overrated or underachieving or both. D’Antoni has won championships overseas, but has never won an NBA crown.

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And in this corner is Jackson, winner of nine NBA titles, but none since Shaq bolted for Miami. The knock on Jackson had always been that he would only agree to coach championship-caliber teams. He dispelled that notion when he signed on to coach the Lakers in 2005 for the second time, post-Shaq. But his Laker teams since have hovered in the middle or toward the bottom of the Western pack, and they have lost in the first round of the playoffs the last two years.

So the two have plenty of ammo with which to needle each other, should it come to that.

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