Ron Harper, who has had enough plenty of times in his 56-year NBA career, has had enough again.

	Ron Harper got close to Shaq here, but isn't liking what he's seeing from the Lakers.

This time, though, it came after his Los Angeles Lakers had coughed up another hairball, this one at home to the Miami Heat, 103-92, and someone had the brass to ask him what it all meant.

Harper, God love him, answered him with the perfect venomous phrase: "We stink."

Not, "We stunk," as in, "Boy were we lousy today, but normally we're not. But, "We stink," as in, "This is a chronic condition that isn't going to change for the foreseeable future."

If this seems like a small distinction, understand that many arguments and more than a few fistfights have been started over the wrong use of tense.

It's simple. Even the greatest player of all time has stunk at one time or other. But nobody -- athlete, sculptor, claims adjuster or flakeout -- wants to hear that he or she, well, stinks.

Stinks is a semi-permanent condition. It is also an insult of the first water, and acceptable only if delivered by masters of the art. Ron Harper was a Master, and is now a Wise Old Head. That's why he still commands a cheerful salary on a team with more money on the table than sense in their heads.

Thus, if he says the Lakers "stink," he's airing issues that normally stay within the family.

Issues that, in this case, are everyone's business, and a source of great merriment outside the 213 area code. Kobe hates Shaq, Shaq hates Kobe, Phil is tearing his Zen out by the roots, and the Lakers, well, stink.

Ahh, but coming from any of the rest of us, those are fighting words. But the Lakers have remarkably little fight in them these days, and Sunday's performance against Miami was more of the same.

Every team goes through tough times, and Harper has seen plenty, even as a Wise Old Head with Michael Jordan's Bulls. He knows the difference between a team in a struggle and a team with dangerous flaws, and he does not have problems with his verb tenses unless he wants to have problems with verb tenses.

He says the Lakers stink. So who are we to doubt him?

We still have to figure out who is going to succeed the Lakers now that they have chosen to give off this funky odor. Portland? Very good, but decidedly old. Sacramento? Young, but decidedly flighty. Philadelphia? Who knows from day to day about them, either?

We could go on, but before we get to Golden State and Boston, why don't we just agree to stop here? The fact is, only the Lakers have the power to cure themselves, if they can get past their dozen or so agendas. I mean, Rick Fox is about to get whacked on "Oz," right?

And maybe Harper decided this was the right time to play his verbal ace, while the Lakers still have time to save themselves. Maybe he has seen how Jackson's inability to bring Jupiter closer to Saturn has only built on the chaos felt by the rest of the solar system. Maybe he figures that only the shame of a public dressing-down from a quasi-peer might shake Bryant and O'Neal from their self-involvement.

You'd like to think this is one of those brilliant psychological ploys that allow teams to spin on a dime and kick up a quarter.

Then again, maybe Ron Harper isn't infallible. Maybe he thinks more of his advice than his targets do. Maybe he did get his verb tenses confused. Oh, hell. With the Lakers, we know too much and not nearly enough, all at the same time.

And maybe the Lakers just stink. But you didn't hear us say it.

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.