NO FUSS AS BUSS PAYS SHAQ $88.5 MILLION.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

EL SEGUNDO - So, what will they knock Jerry Buss for now? Overspending?

Buss and his Lakers front office have drawn impolite criticism lately from business rivals in the basketball world. The agent for a discarded player charged that the team cares more about its financial bottom line than about winning.

The spendthrift, loudmouth owner of an NBA also-ran suggested the Lakers are switching roles with the Clippers when it comes to investing in young players, a remark that would be particularly hurtful if it didn't read like the second runner-up for the Jim Rome ``Huge Fax of the Day.''

One thing you can say in defense of Buss' critics is they're not guilty of kicking him when he's down - the Lakers, despite his alleged pennypinching, are coming off their sixth NBA championship in his 21 years.

One of the many things you can say in defense of Buss is look at what he did Friday.

Acting a couple of years before it was strictly necessary, and spending more than he might have needed to, Buss kept the league MVP happy by giving Shaquille O'Neal the largest contract extension the NBA would allow. The three-year, $88.5 million extension binds the franchise player to the franchise through the spring of 2006.

``Actions speak louder than words,'' said O'Neal's agent, Leonard Armato, asserting Buss' generosity and general manager Mitch Kupchak's late-summer acquisitions ``silenced their critics.''

``Silenced'' them, I wouldn't be so sure. Put them in their place? Yes, Buss has done that, at least for now.

Let Mark Cuban - the Dallas Mavericks owner who compared the Lakers to the Clippers - Paul Allen (Portland Trail Blazers), Cablevision (New York Knicks) and other Internet and corporate billionaires shoot for the title of League's Deepest Roster.

As long as Buss has O'Neal (League's Best Player), Kobe Bryant (completing League's Best Tandem) and Phil Jackson (League's Best Coach), the rest are free-spending Chihuahuas nipping at the frayed hems of his blue jeans.

``We don't need any more superstars,'' O'Neal said, and he's right. ``We just need a lot of role players.''

This isn't baseball, where the O'Malley family couldn't afford to keep filling out a competitive, 25-man Dodgers team and had to sell out to Fox.

In basketball, Buss can win by lavishing the real money on his superstars and picking up role players at the swap meet. By the time the opening-night roster is set, O'Neal and Bryant will have played with 35 different teammates in only four years with the Lakers.

Can an owner of Buss' comparatively modest means, a man with no income besides sports, a man philosophically opposed to trying to ``buy'' championships, find a way to beat the high rollers? He just did.

Friday, Buss was in a good mood for a man who pays one player a yearly salary higher than the $16 million he shelled out for the entire franchise in 1979. He walked into a news conference at the Lakers' practice facility wearing a sportcoat, those tattered jeans, and huge mirrored sunglasses with Superman logos on the lenses.

``He (Shaq) insisted,'' Buss said of putting on the eyewear, a relatively small price to pay for the center's continued contentment.

``I remember when it (the basketball economy) started switching,'' Buss mused. ``I think it was Norm Nixon I signed for $260,000, and people said I was crazy. It's just changed so dramatically, it's hard to believe.''

Buss said he never took seriously the snipings of Cuban and, before him, David Falk, agent for the traded Glen Rice.

Of Falk, he said: ``He had to say certain things. I had to do certain things. If he were me, he'd have done the same thing I did.''

Of Cuban, he said: ``We've signed all of our players now. We'll see how he handles his players.''

Of course, by giving O'Neal the maximum, instead of dickering or waiting to see if the price would go down, Buss might have spent himself into a future financial corner. Eventually he might be cutting coupons just to pay the role players. Then he'll hear himself called cheap all over again.

He also might be admiring a second mantle full of championship trophies by then, while the Mavericks and Trail Blazers are polishing their Sixth Man Awards.