Jerry Brewer of the Orlando Sentinel reports that Jermaine O?Neal may be unattainable during next season?s free agent frenzy. Not because of the salary cap or the luxury tax, but because he doesn?t want to leave Indiana.

"Unless the whole floor falls out as far as management and the year we have, Indiana has to be No. 1," the Pacers forward said. "I'm very loyal. The Pacers went out and traded Dale Davis, an All-Star, for me, a player not known by many people. They believed that much in me."

While he could play the free agent game and pit teams against one another to get the big payoff, O?Neal doesn't need the attention. He'd prefer to keep growing in the place where his stardom hatched. In three short years with the Pacers, he has blossomed from a lost ?preps-to-pros? phenom, to one of the premier big men in the game. And he loves the Pacers for giving him that chance.

"(Team president) Donnie Walsh, he's one of the last Mohicans," O'Neal said. "You can believe everything he says. I'm a huge fan of Donnie Walsh and (coach) Isiah Thomas. I don't want to make it an issue this year," O'Neal said of being a free agent. "I have a year left on the deal I have. I don't want to talk much about it at all."

So for the Pacers, keeping O'Neal is simple. Watch him play well. Ensure that the team improves. Offer O'Neal maximum money. Shake O'Neal's hand after he accepts it. The rest of the NBA's big spenders don't even get a chance.