Happy to Assist

All of the September talk will be about the basketballs, and exactly how many the Lakers plan to roll out every night now that Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and Gary Payton and, maybe, Karl Malone are there.

The triangle offense is one thing. Four superstars, none of whom has averaged fewer than Payton’s 18.3 points over his career, could be quite another. After all, offensive civil wars are nothing new and, in fact, quite tolerated in Los Angeles.

Payton, not yet officially a Laker but close enough to advise General Manager Mitch Kupchak to go ahead and get some sleep before July 16, the first day free agents may sign contracts, waved away the notion there would be anything but harmony in Phil Jackson’s offense. As of Wednesday night, the Lakers were still awaiting Malone’s decision.

Dressed in a white Nike warmup suit, white Nike sneakers and a white Nike cap and preparing to do a colorful Nike commercial shoot, Payton sat near the front of a cushy recreational vehicle Wednesday afternoon. It was hot in the rear parking lot of Patriotic Hall, a few blocks down Figueroa Street from Staples Center, but an air conditioner pumped cool breezes past Payton, and he smiled again at the idea of being a Laker.

Anything short of a championship would be a waste, he said, and anything short of his career scoring average, well, he could live with that.

“I don’t think we can go for anything less than [an NBA title],” he said. “Everybody would say we’re flops and that it was just all hype. ... We’ve got to take it one step at a time, win basketball games, get ourselves in a good situation, then get into the playoffs and try to dominate then.

“And everybody thinks they don’t know what’s going to happen with the ball situation with the four of us. That’s not going to be a problem. Me and Karl understand that we want to win a championship. We can adjust to anything. Besides, I think all four of us can score 20 points a game. I think so. I can get a lot of easy baskets, and Karl, when Shaq is getting double-teamed, he can hit that little mid-range jumper, and Kobe’s going to be Kobe. You know he’s going to score points. ...

“So, we’re not going to worry about that. It’s not going to be about who gets the ball and all that stuff. That’s over with. Me and Karl have been in the league too long. We can sacrifice. If I can average 16 [points] and 10 [assists], I’m happy. I’m happy.”

Payton will spend part of today at the Laker training facility in El Segundo and part of it looking for housing, he said, perhaps in some of the beach communities nearby. He heard Tuesday afternoon from O’Neal, who invited him to spend a few days in Orlando with him later in summer, and Wednesday afternoon from owner Jerry Buss, who called from Europe. He has spoken at some length with Magic Johnson and Jackson.

On the RV, he told tales of O’Neal begging him to come to Los Angeles at the last All-Star break, and of Malone promising him the two would play together some day, seeing as they would arrive into free agency in the same July. Now, he believes, they will all play for a championship together, in gold, in a city momentarily saddened by the Lakers’ failure two months ago and this week’s accusations against Bryant.

Though he still expects Milwaukee to piece together a sign-and-trade package that would allow the Lakers to pay him more, Payton took less than $5 million because of the experience of being a Laker, of playing beside O’Neal and Bryant, and nothing, for now, would dampen that. He said he wanted to play for a championship and then took a reasonable step toward it, committing to the Lakers instead of the Portland Trail Blazers, Miami Heat or, in the 11th hour, Indiana Pacers.

“It’s a good situation for me, I felt,” Payton said. “All the money, I got money. The opportunity to come play with Shaq and Kobe, and especially when Karl said he was going to be aboard, I couldn’t bypass an opportunity like that. We’ve got that. Me and Karl have been in the league long enough that we’ve established what we need to establish. Now, for both of us to get a ring ... would be the right way to end our careers, to get one of them.

“I talked to Phil to see what he wanted to know, what he wanted and whether he was going to be here, and the talk went really well.

“And it’ll make it easier on Shaq. They double-team him and you’ve got three threats coming around the perimeter. I don’t think a lot of teams are going to want to double or it’ll be a feast for us. That conversation went well.”

Jackson and Payton spoke in the days after Malone told the Lakers he would consider playing for their $1.5-million exception if it meant they could sign Payton. After that, Payton said, it was nice to be recruited by players and Hall of Famers. It was nice to consider playing so close to his boyhood home of Oakland, where much of his family lives.

Of Malone’s gesture -- his proposed salary would constitute a pay cut of nearly $18 million -- Payton said, “I was blown away, especially with a guy like that. He’s one of the greatest basketball players to ever play this game. For him to make a statement like that was big for me. It made me feel good that a guy of his caliber can put me in a category that he’ll wait for me and he will sign with a team so he can play with me. That makes me feel really good.”

Though, suddenly, everyone is waiting on Malone.

“I don’t think Karl is going to go back on his word,” he said. “He’s already told everybody he’s going to sign. I don’t think he’s that type of person.”

There is, perhaps, only one issue that would cloud their training camp. Bryant could be in some trouble, and a week that could be the best of Kupchak’s career is, at best, bittersweet. Payton, who late last season was charged with three counts of misdemeanor assault for an incident outside a Toronto strip club, predicted there would be no distractions.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” he said. “We don’t know what he’s done. Nobody knows what he’s done. It’s just like when I was up at that thing in Toronto, people didn’t know what really went on. It was just something that happened. ...

“He’ll be all right. He’s a tough kid. He’ll get through it.”

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Point Guard Comparison

How Gary Payton compared statistically with some of the other top NBA point guards last season:

*--* PLAYER GP MPG PPG RPG APG FG % FT % Gary Payton, SEA-MIL 80 40.1 20.4 4.2 8.3 45.4 71.0 Jason Kidd, NJ 80 37.4 18.7 6.3 8.9 41.4 84.1 Stephon Marbury, PHO 81 40.0 22.3 3.2 8.1 43.9 80.3 Steve Francis, HOU 81 41.0 21.0 6.2 6.2 43.5 80.0 Sam Cassell, MIL 78 34.6 19.7 4.4 5.8 47.0 86.1 Jason Terry, ATL 81 38.0 17.2 3.4 7.4 42.8 88.7 Steve Nash, DAL 82 33.1 17.7 2.9 7.3 46.5 90.9 Gilbert Arenas, GS 82 35.0 18.3 4.7 6.3 43.1 79.1 Eric Snow, PHI 82 37.9 12.9 3.7 6.6 45.2 85.8 Tony Parker, SA 82 33.8 15.5 2.6 5.3 46.4 75.5

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