The proclamation from the mayor declared Wednesday to be Jermaine O'Neal Day in Indianapolis.

More accurately, it's going to be a Jermaine O'Neal Seven Years, now that the Indiana Pacers have secured his signature on a maxed-out contract that runs through the 2009-10 season.

O'Neal made it official Wednesday, accepting the Pacers' offer for about $126 million, a figure nudged upward by the updated salary cap figures released by the NBA on Tuesday. O'Neal will receive about $13,140,000 next season, with a 12.5 percent increase ($1,642,500) each season.

Although he's been the Pacers' leading scorer and rebounder the past two seasons, when he made the All-Star team and earned third-team all-NBA honors, O'Neal enters a brave new world with the deal.

He's now the Pacers' highest-paid player -- the highest-paid in franchise history -- and supplants Reggie Miller as the team's focal point.

"He's the cornerstone of the franchise," said Larry Bird, president of basketball operations, at a news conference in the entry pavilion of Conseco Fieldhouse. "We're going to try to build this team around him."