INDIANAPOLIS — It’s like a GEICO commercial, really.
An overambitious guard has his eyes set on the rim and decides to speed through the lane (he’s the compact car). Shaquille O’Neal, completely embracing his role as the Celtics’ concrete wall in the paint, sees him coming (he’s the Hummer). There’s a massive crash at the basket (that’s the traffic light). Not so much as a light is damaged on the Hummer, but the compact is crumpled up on the hardwood.
While O’Neal’s standing over the guard with his arms up, wearing his “What did I do?’’ face, the officials stare at the wreckage, then at each other, like traffic cops and insurance agents, trying to decide whether O’Neal committed a flagrant foul.
Somehow, even though O’Neal is in his 19th season, his unequaled size and accidental strength still make that a difficult question for officials. And O’Neal gets frustrated, too, just yesterday being fined $35,000 for comments about the officiating in the Celtics’ Christmas Day loss to the Magic.
“It’s just tough,’’ said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. “You don’t know what a foul is or isn’t with Shaq.’’
Just last year, when then-Cavalier O’Neal pancaked the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo in a second-round playoff series, Rivers called O’Neal’s foul an “assassination.’’
Now?
“Even when you coached against him, it’s as difficult as there is,’’ Rivers said. “He’s just so physical. You don’t know when they’re flopping, you don’t know when he actually leveled a guy.’’
Rondo didn’t see it that way then or now.
“All his fouls aren’t flagrant,’’ he said. “When he fouls hard, they consider it a flagrant, but he’s just got a big mass.’’
O’Neal has been whistled for two flagrant fouls this season. He was at fault for the head-on collision with LeBron James in Miami, but the league reviewed his run-in with Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook and downgraded it.
Still, there are instances when it’s just hard to judge.
When O’Neal flattened Andre Iguodala in the Celtics’ win over the Sixers last week, the officials thought long and hard about whether to call the foul a flagrant. They decided against it. The indecision was telling.
“It’s got to be tough on him as a player because what he’s known from when he came in this league to now is completely changing,’’ said the Celtics’ Ray Allen. “He’s had to adapt. You’ve got to learn what the referees were calling, and every game it may be different.
“A lot of times I see him, and he jumps straight up and down, and since he’s so big it looks like he just laid him out, but he didn’t do anything. He just jumped straight up and down. If I did it, it would be a no call.’’
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