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Ian Ayres of the Freakonomics blog has a post about the merit of certain kinds of bribes, and Shaquille O'Neal comes up:

I wonder why Shaq and a few other NBA players haven't offered to make modest contributions to help resolve the current referee dispute. Shaq has publicly supported the refs in their negotiation with the league. He worries that replacement refs will increase his probability of injury. He comes by his concern naturally since he was injured during the last ref lockout in 1995 ("O'Neal needed surgery for a broken thumb after being fouled by Matt Geiger in a preseason game.")

In some ways, Shaq may just be trying to curry favor. After all, sooner or later the unionized refs will be back officiating NBA games, and they may (consciously or unconsciously) favor the players who had their back during these negotiations. But whatever the mixture of self-interest and altruism, Shaq might go further by offering, say, $100,000 if the dispute is resolved before the regular season. It's hard to know for sure, but some public reports suggest that the two sides may be less than a million dollars apart. This would be a paltry sum for a few concerned players to kick in -- and Shaq is unlikely to be around to contribute to future labor disputes.