CITY OF LAKERS

This time, the championship moment spilled out across all downtown Los Angeles, swarmed around Staples Center and feted 13 Laker players and five coaches, who stared down at the assemblage from a stage high above.

Two days after the Lakers completed their NBA title journey--and after the resulting disturbances outside Staples--an estimated crowd of 250,000 turned out to bask in the sun and the presence, one last time, of the 1999-2000 NBA champions.

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” guard Derek Fisher said after traveling along the parade route Wednesday, then emerging on a platform outside Staples for the end celebration.

“I can’t even describe it.”

At the start of the parade, Shaquille O’Neal referred to Monday night’s problems outside of Staples, urged peace and promised that there will be more festive days such as these.

“The other night after the game, a couple of bad things happened, a couple of people trashed two police cars,” he said. “So on behalf of the Lakers and [Coach] Phil Jackson, we’re going to get them two new police cars.

“We want to say that when we get one next year, we just want to be safe, we want everybody to be safe and do the right thing because we’re going to get one next year too.”

There were a few minor incidents after the parade, police officer Dan Cox said. A group of young men, many wearing Lakers’ jerseys, pounded on a bus and stole food from a catering truck 12 blocks south of the arena before police rounded them up.

Otherwise, the celebration was peaceful.

Jackson evoked the long journey his team had taken from the October training camp in Santa Barbara and compared it to the scene stretched out before him.

“It shows what a group of people can accomplish together in a season and make people feel good,” he said, “and it just goes to show what you can do in two days.”

Other than those references, the mood of the Lakers’ speeches was light and loud, ranging from Robert Horry’s one-line epitaph--”Finally, the championship has come back to Los Angeles!”--that paraphrased professional wrestler “The Rock,” to O’Neal’s bellowing, “CAN YOU DIG IT?” to veteran guard Brian Shaw’s graceful words of thanks.

“I’m probably happier than anybody else on this stage,” Shaw said. “I took a different path than everybody else.

“This is the seventh team I’ve been on, and I’ve finally come to a team that won a championship.”

Said forward Rick Fox: “We just proved that in some cases if you want something bad enough, you have to go out and take it. We took it this year. And we’re going to take it again next year.”

Forward Glen Rice, who is a free agent and probably will be dealt in a sign-and-trade deal during the movement period starting Aug. 1, repeated the sentiment that he isn’t ruling out a Laker return.

“I look forward to coming back next year and doing it again,” he told the crowd.

Recently, though, Jackson made it clear that he does not expect Rice to be part of the Lakers’ 2000-01 title defense.

“I’ll be very surprised if he’s still a Laker on Sept. 1, “ Jackson said.

But, as usual, the lasting and most unique words came from O’Neal, who climaxed a season of new nicknames with a final moniker. “I am no longer ‘The Big Aristotle,’ ” O’Neal said, referring to the nickname he announced when he won the most valuable player award for the regular season. “From now on, I want to be known as ‘The Big Shakespeare.’

“Because it was Shakespeare that said, ‘Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them,’ and it was great doing it this year for the city and for everybody else.

“And we’re going to try to get one next year.”

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Associated Press contributed to this story.