Van Exel, Garretson Meet Again

As if the Lakers were going to let Nick Van Exel out of this one easy.

“Hey, Nick, there’s your buddy over there.”

Or:

“Try not to bump into him tonight.”

Six months after they became linked forever in an important game, Van Exel, the Laker point guard, and referee Ron Garretson, the official he sent onto the scorer’s table with a forearm shove, met for the first time in a very unimportant game. The vitals out of the way--a 90-80 exhibition win over the Dallas Mavericks at Fresno, 10 points (four for four) for rookie Kobe Bryant in his debut, no suspensions--Van Exel put the matter in the past once and for all.

“It was dead to me,” he said of the too-close encounter April 9 in Denver that led to a seven-game suspension and $25,000 fine.

And the meeting with the captains and officials before the game at midcourt?

“I shook his hand,” Van Exel said, “that’s all.”

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Bryant, playing without a splint but with the left wrist taped, made mental mistakes when he tried to force plays that weren’t there, but again showed obvious skills, especially in the open court. He made all four shots and added five rebounds.

“It was a good experience for Kobe,” Coach Del Harris said. “He made some mistakes that if we were up 20 or down 20, they wouldn’t have mattered. And he did some good things. He’ll remember those and learn from the mistakes. It was like, oh, a half-semester of college.”

Said Bryant, admitting to an early case of the jitters: “A little bit. But once I went on the court and took the first few steps, that was it.”

*

Fred Roberts, a Laker last season, has latched on with the Mavericks in a big way. He didn’t have high hopes to get a call from any team, then got a fully guaranteed $247,500 the day after camp opened. Roberts’ signing leaves all eight Lakers who were traded or renounced in the off-season accounted for: Sedale Threatt is in France, Frankie King is in Spain, Vlade Divac was traded to the Hornets, George Lynch and Anthony Peeler were dealt to the Grizzlies, Pig Miller signed with the SuperSonics, Magic Johnson retired, and Roberts is with Dallas.