Ceballos Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind

The Lakers left the porch light on again through Friday night and into Saturday morning, and still no sign of the guy who ran away from home. But they managed to scrape together enough guys who wanted to be ready for the Charlotte Hornets tonight, so the workout went on as scheduled at Pauley Pavilion, complete with a rare speech from Executive Vice President Jerry West.

“There were some things that needed to be said, that’s all,” West said later. “All of us are here, hopefully, because we have the same common goal.”

Other things were said later by Magic Johnson, a team leader if not a team captain:

“The Lakers don’t have problems. They have a problem.”

Speaking of Cedric Ceballos, he was hit with another $1,000 fine for missing the Saturday practice, still hadn’t so much as called any team executive as of Saturday night and, barring a late change, won’t play tonight against the Hornets at the Forum even if he does make contact today. He could be taken off the suspended list and avoid another $27,378 hit, but he apparently won’t be able to avoid the bench.

Whenever he does show, Ceballos will have some explaining to do. If not to the public, then at least to teammates.

“We’re all upset,” said Johnson, who will make his second consecutive start at small forward. “We’re trying to do something here. We have a great opportunity, he’s a big part of what we’re trying to do, he’s still the leading-minutes guy on this team, he still takes more shots than anybody on this team, so where’s your problem? I can’t understand where the problem is.

“Basically, just come on back. Get back here. Who’s he hurting? He’s hurting us. We’re a family, we’re a team. But if he doesn’t want to be here, then call and say that too and we’ll move forward.

“We’ll welcome him back, but there will be some questions. We want to know is he committed to the Lakers and what we’re trying to do? If he’s not, then he shouldn’t come back at all.

“Is this embarrassing to the organization? Of course. We’ve never had this happen before. Will we survive? Of course. We always have. One guy doesn’t stop anything. It’s just like when Michael [Jordan] retired, I retired, Larry [Bird] retired--the league kept going. It’ll keep going. But who’s the most embarrassed is him.”

Ceballos’ reasons for going AWOL are still unknown because he has not even communicated anything to the Lakers through agent Fred Slaughter, but the team has come to accept that it’s a basketball matter, despite Slaughter’s message to West that Ceballos had a personal situation to deal with. After all, if he had come to team officials and said he needed a few days for a family problem or whatever, the time off would certainly have been given.

So everything leads back to a dispute with Coach Del Harris over A) playing time; B) the rotation; C) getting more shots; or D) all of the above. This comes as Harris made a move in Saturday’s pre-practice team meeting at midcourt to regain the players’ confidence, which had slipped some lately after a series of losses in so-called barometer games.

Aware that players are frustrated with his inconsistent rotation but making no apologies for his long-standing rule of riding a hot hand through the end of the game, even if that means a starter sits for most of the fourth quarter, Harris defined roles. Five people--including Ceballos--are starters, and Johnson, Anthony Peeler and Sedale Threatt have key roles off the bench. And everyone else gets the minutes where they can.

A hard line on the lineup.

“I think that was missing,” said Johnson, who prefers to come off the bench. “When you’re talking about grumbling and little things, it was missing, and now it’s here. Maybe he thought he had said it or maybe he thought he didn’t have to say it, and now maybe he thought he had to say it. And he laid it out, and it was beautiful.”

For his part, Harris is still doing his best to stay away from a public battle with Ceballos. He’d like to have one in person, albeit in private, because that would mean his leading scorer and co-captain had resurfaced, but instead is left to wonder if Ceballos will even return by the time a six-game trip begins Tuesday at Orlando.

“This is a day-at-a-time operation,” Harris said. “Tune in tomorrow.”