A few years ago, at NBA referee's training camp, the league showed a highlight video clip in which officials in various scenarios tried to break up a fight during a game.

	A teammate keeps Shaquille O'Neal from charging Brad Miller a second time.

One of the clips showed a ref getting blindsided, another a ref getting tomahawked, and still another getting put in a choke hold in the middle of pile of players.

The message: Don't put yourself in the way of danger. At least not too much danger.

That's why it was so impressive when the officials tried to get involved and actually break up the fight between Shaquille O'Neal and Brad Miller and Charles Oakley recently.

After all, there are no set guidelines among NBA officials about what is supposed to happen when a fight breaks out on the court, unlike in hockey, when the referees wait until both players go down to the ice before breaking up the fracas.

In the NBA, common sense prevails, and if a 7-foot-1, 380-pound maniac decides to start swinging wildly, well, let him swing himself out before stepping in -- unless, of course, you want to get a few shots in yourself, while nobody is looking.

Actually, at least one official is supposed to step back from the melee and sort of take in the scene, count the players on the court, take note of who is involved, who is trying to get involved.

More than 10 players on the court during a fight? Somebody is getting suspended. Somebody trying to sneak a punch while he thinks nobody possibly can see him, take a look at the zebra over in the corner, standing back and taking everything in, watching your dirty tricks. (Yes, we're talking to you, Jason Terry, you weasel.)

Because when the fight is over, somebody has to take control, and if all three striped shirts are sitting on the bottom of the pile, finding it difficult to breathe with 750 pounds of sweaty stench pressing down on you, then the game is never going to resume.

Control. That's the key. The veteran officials are the best at maintaining it. Joey Crawford. Steve Javie. Bennett Salvatore. Dick Bavetta.

Those guys all follow the league, have histories with the players, know who doesn't like whom in particular games.

About those dressing rooms where nobody is permitted before or after a game: The officials aren't applying makeup back there.

	Robinson

	Malone

No, they are talking about the fact that Karl Malone has, well, a history, you might say, with David Robinson. They remind one another that the posses of Jerry Stackhouse and Allen Iverson once went at it in a bar and there still might be some lingering anger that could manifest itself in the form of a flagrant 2. They remember that Chris Webber and Vin Baker once chased each other around the inside of Arco Arena looking to jackslap each other, and keep their eyes on the huffing and puffing.

Of course, sometimes, fights come out of nowhere. A guy is at home, his wife rips him a new one for not getting her homegirls enough tickets in the lower bowl, and the next thing you know, the player is throwing punches.

He sees his wife, of course, but he is taking it out on some poor schlub just trying to get some minutes in trash time to keep his paycheck coming for another month.

That's not necessarily what happened with Shaq. No, he warned everybody that he was going to start swinging, and it became apparent that things were going to get out of hand when those hacks Oakley and Miller kept up the clubbing. After something like that happens, all three officials huddle, with 20,000 screaming, angry fans wanting blood. They try not to take too long, or the crowd might get unruly. But they want to get it right, get all the facts from each referee's perspective.

The next day, the league calls, and the officials have to go over it all over again with Ed Rush, the head of the officials, and Stu Jackson, the league's vice president of basketball operations.

Fines are handed out, officials graded on their handling of the situation.

All in all, it was a good day as long as there are no chokeholds or blindside punches.

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