EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For inspiration and perspective, Shaquille O'Neal drove out in the middle of the night to the city park where he played as a kid with a beat-up ball.

        In miles, the concrete court at Weequahic Park in Newark isn't so far from the wooden floor at Continental Airlines Arena where O'Neal took the Los Angeles Lakers to their third straight NBA championship Wednesday night with a sweep of the New Jersey Nets.

        In the magnitude of its meaning to O'Neal, the journey back to his roots before the final game triggered a million memories and gave him a greater appreciation of how far he had come.

        “As a youngster, I used to play with the raggedy basketball my father got me,” he said. “I used to dream about certain things. I stuck with it and all my dreams have come true. ... I got my toughness in Brick City going to the park, getting beat up (on the court), and my father and grandfather telling me to go back out there and fight.”

        O'Neal learned to fight and he learned to play and he grew into more than just the strongest center in NBA history. With his 34 points in the Lakers' 113-107 victory in Game 4, he won his third straight finals MVP and set a record for most points in a four-game series, 145.

        “He distorts the game,” Nets president Rod Thorn said. “Nobody in history could have contained him. Wilt Chamberlain was the Goliath of his day and he was at least 50 pounds lighter.”

        Yet this modern Goliath, plagued by arthritic toes, doesn't know how much longer he'll keep playing, which makes him cherish his championships all the more. He needs, he said. “somebody to help me with my pinkie-winkies.”

        For each of the Lakers, their title run this year carried a poignancy beyond the debate about their place in history. No, they're not the best team of all-time. Even with this sweep and three-peat, they're not in the top 10 with at least two of Michael Jordan's Bulls teams, the Lakers of both the Kareem and Magic era and the Wilt and Jerry West days, the 1967 Sixers, the vintage Celtics of the '60s and the later version in the '80s.

        So what? To the Lakers, it doesn't matter much where others rank them. All that matters are the rings and what they signify.

        Kobe Bryant doused himself and his jubilant teammates with bottle after bottle of champagne in the tumultuous Lakers' locker room, players hugging each other and bouncing up and down like children as they chanted, “Three, three, three.”

        Bryant is only 23, so young to have so many championship rings.

        “The first one will always be the best one,” he said. “The second one, the adversity that we went through throughout the course of the year made that one special. We proved that we belonged. And this one, it's kind of making us step up as one of the great teams.”

        All the Lakers sprayed Mitch Richmond and gave him warm, soggy hugs, knowing how much this title meant to him. He played little all season and only the last 84 seconds of Game 4. But Richmond made his only shot, a sweet 16-foot fadeaway jumper, and that was the final basket of the Lakers' season.

        Now, after a 14-year career that started with so much promise as Rookie of the Year with Golden State and veered off to struggling seasons in Sacramento, he will get his first championship ring at last.

        “Shaq said something to Phil and that's why I got in,” Richmond said. “The guys said in the huddle when we were going out before the game, 'Let's do it for Mitch. Let's get Mitch in there.' They told me if I get the ball, they're going to move out of the way and let me score. It felt good. I'm really going to cherish this when I look back. I got a ring. Being in the game, hitting that shot, made it even more special.”

        For Phil Jackson, this championship burnished his reputation as one of the best coaches in NBA history, if not the best. He didn't build a dynasty as Red Auerbach did with the Boston Celtics. But Jackson took great players on different teams and got them to work together, to subjugate their egos for the sake of his system and to win.

        Jackson passed Pat Riley to become the winningest playoff coach, and his nine NBA titles as a head coach tied Auerbach for the NBA record.

        “It's my belief and my experience that the third victory in the three successive years is always the most unique and most difficult one to fight your way through,” Jackson said. “This certainly was this year.”

        Jackson always told his players that the season was more about the journey than the destination. They believed in him and, with one more championship, found out he was right.

        ———

        Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at swilstein@ap.org

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