Frequent Flying Has Downside for Bryant

He flies through the air with the greatest of, uh, uh . . . oh, skip it.

Kobe Bryant takes flight and the Lakers hold their breath, waiting for the parachute to deploy or the X-rays to come back negative.

Some days, like Sept. 2 in a pickup game at Venice Beach, he comes down, puts out the left hand to brace the fall, and ends up with a broken wrist.

Others, like Friday night at the Forum, he is conscious not to extend the arm during descent and instead uses his lower back as landing gear.

By Saturday morning, when the pain had shifted from the tailbone area to Bryant’s front and side, the injury had been redefined as a strained left hip flexor.

By any name, it was enough to keep him out of the Lakers’ 100-87 exhibition victory over the Phoenix Suns later that night before 15,054 in the championship game of the annual four-team tournament, and enough to have him listed as day-to-day only two games after returning from the wrist injury.

“I’m kind of, you could say, used to it,” Bryant said of his frequent faller miles. “In high school, it happened about every play.”

In the pros, or just before the pros, the not-so-happy landings have varied. At Venice, he got hit in the front of the legs, sending him toppling forward. Against the 76ers, Bryant drove the right side, twisted in midair as he got to the basket, collided with Tim Kempton, and went down hard on his back.

Either way, the Lakers are concerned, or at least interested in a lesser degree of difficulty. The trick is to do that while still encouraging the aggressive play.

“You have to be selective when you expose yourself like that,” Coach Del Harris said of the drives to the basket.

Added teammate Eddie Jones, himself a regular above the rim: “Sometimes, you’re better off with the three-foot bank. You’ve got to save yourself. You’re going to get beat up enough going through screens and getting elbows.

“He’s so young and so excited to be out there. And he wants to do something that will make the crowd ooh and aah. But he’ll learn.”

He already has.

“There are situations in games when you know what you need,” Bryant said. “You might need to get to the free throw line or whatever, so you try for the contact. You’ve just got to pick the situations.”

Without Bryant and Jerome Kersey, out for a second game because of a bruised left foot, Nick Van Exel led the Lakers with 19 points and 10 assists. Shaquille O’Neal had 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Washington Bullets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 119-104, in the preliminary game.