Jordan’s Air Is Still a Bit Too Rarefied for Heir Kobe

It shouldn’t be hard to be 19 with a great smile, nice family, $3.6-million contract, signature shoe, etc.

On the other hand, wouldn’t it be great if we could hold the Michael Jordan comparisons until Kobe Bryant wins a title somewhere besides Lower Merion High, finishes puberty or becomes an NBA starter?

The Hype Monster went berserk last week and anointed Bryant the next Jordan. Not only is the mission impossible, the job isn’t open. As there was no next Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali or Beatles, there will be no next Michael.

Bryant can’t become Him unless he single-handedly takes over a franchise, as Jordan did, which would mean the Lakers would have to move Shaquille O’Neal and let their wunderkind shoot 25 times a game to see if he could win 10 scoring titles, five NBA titles and countless MVPs, all-star MVPs and finals MVPs, while becoming a brand name alongside Coke and Disney. Even for someone as blessed as Bryant, that’s a lot.

“I think it’s grossly unfair, what happens in this league,” says Laker Vice President Jerry West, who acquired Bryant and would adopt him if he could.

“To me, legends or icons of sports are made over a period of time and to anoint someone at a relatively tender age doesn’t seem quite fair.

“More importantly, what does it do to the kid?”

As usual, the Hype Monster did it for its own convenience. The Bulls and Lakers were playing without O’Neal or Scottie Pippen, so there went the old Finals Preview angle.

Next Jordan was the next best it could come up with on short notice. The bobos fell in line; TBS’ Dick Stockton mused Jordan really wasn’t a star as a young player. Right, he only averaged 26 as a rookie and 43 in his second postseason. You could say it was mindless but harmless, except it cuts both ways. How long will it be before resonant anchor voices are asking why Bryant hasn’t won a single scoring title?

Meanwhile, Bryant tries to learn to play the right way, as Jordan did under Dean Smith at North Carolina, where he averaged fewer than 20 points over three years, learning not only to play within, but to revere, a system.

As a prospect, Bryant measures up to a 19-year-old Jordan. Kobe is a better ballhandler, with one of those incredible crossovers that kids like Bryant and Allen Iverson, growing up in an era when no one called palming, have developed. He’s an amazing shooter for someone so young, who gets to the hoop so easily. After missing 24 of 29 three-point shots this season, Bryant has zoomed to 35%. Jordan, another super athlete who didn’t have to shoot from outside, didn’t reach 30% until age 27.

Whether Bryant attains Jordan’s poise and will remains to be seen. You can’t say someone who took pop singer Brandy to his high school prom has been completely unaffected, but Kobe seems to be handling everything OK.

Every year, the Next Jordans arrive in Chicago and Current Jordan slays them and drags their bodies up and down the floor. Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, Jerry Stackhouse--Jordan turned them to charcoal, but Bryant looked the dragon in the eye and returned the fire.

“Kobe’s a great young player who might one day take his throne,” said Ron Harper, in a rare concession by a Bull to an opponent, “but I don’t think Michael’s ready to give his throne up yet.”

Jordan thinks about it, though. When Bryant threw down his windmill dunk, Jordan says he asked Pippen, sitting next to him on the bench, if they ever got up that high when they were that young.

Pippen said he couldn’t remember that far back.

Let’s just say Bryant had a good night. Not the last one, or one that will define him for long, but one he’ll remember as he pursues his destiny--over the next 10 or 15 years.

In the meantime, let’s just let him be the First Kobe and the best one he can be.

LARRY CAN’T GET HANG OF THIS GM THING . . .

The first trade the 76ers’ Larry Brown ever made was struck down. The rest should have been.

Since his Dino Radja deal was canceled for medical reasons, Brown has traded the pick that became Keith Van Horn and now Jerry Stackhouse, getting back Tim Thomas, still a barely tested rookie, Jim Jackson and Theo Ratliff, upcoming free agents, and Aaron McKie, a reserve.

Brown said Stackhouse just wanted to showcase himself. It’s never good when one Tar Heel gives up on another, but it was probably over before Brown got there. An upcoming free agent who wanted a mega-deal was a problem for the 76ers, who need a big man.

However, Ratliff, the key, started only occasionally for the undersized Pistons--and he wants big money too. Thomas, who has looked good, will start. Jackson will move back to guard. Brown will look for someone else to get mad at. Bet on Derrick Coleman. Brown actually has hopes for him, which is where the trouble always starts.

Meanwhile, Doug Collins is smiling for the first time in months. The Pistons, who were dying for a scorer, can sign Stackhouse with $7 million to $8 million left to offer Jayson Williams or Tyrone Hill next summer. Even if Collins doesn’t stay to see it, he may have led them toward a brighter day.

OUR LITTLE BRIAN HAS GROWN UP (ELSEWHERE)

It’s not easy being Brian Williams. Possessed of such a rapier wit, he has little choice but to unsheathe it and suffer the consequences.

The Piston center recently protested hiring female officials, then retracted his protest: “I haven’t gotten a single call since I made those statements. The greatest thing the NBA ever did was put these women in there. It is great to have true female leadership and more levelheadedness on the court. I think they should hire a hundred of them. There should be at least one woman official at each game to provide a voice of reason out there.”

He called Van Horn “the Great White Hope,” then denied he meant anything racist.

You wonder how he finds time to play between pronouncements and corrections, but he’s averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds, making himself an all-star candidate.

Of course, if he doesn’t make it, he says, lashing out anew, he knows who to blame.

“I know if it’s up to [Miami Coach Pat] Riley, I don’t have a chance,” Williams said. “He’s still mad at me for signing with Chicago last year and helping them kick his butt.”

Anyway, he can be the center on the Former Clipper All-Stars.

FACES AND FIGURES

Scoop of the week: With Chicago papers, TV and radio stations hanging on every word, Pippen revealed he was resigned to returning to the Bulls to 8-year-old Derameo Johnson, a guest at a team party for underprivileged children. Derameo probably has his own talk show by now. . . . Patrick Ewing doesn’t practice, to protect his 35-year-old knees, and the tabloids bombed him after he went six for 20 in a Bulls rout, calling him “creaky” and criticizing him for not being a “vocal leader.” Ewing scored 82 points in the next three games, proving his age and leadership are less the problem than the other 11 Knicks. . . . Williams, the Nets’ center/provocateur, defended Ewing, more or less: “The Knicks look for excuses and that’s an excuse. That is the biggest crock I’ve ever read. Patrick Ewing carries that team day in and day out.” Said Ewing, not sounding grateful: “Who gives a . . . what Jayson Williams says?”

More Kobe shooting stats: after starting five for 29 on threes, Bryant has gone 21 for his next 46. Hardaway has been over 33% for a season, with the old line, only once. Hill and Stackhouse never have. . . . No point in renegotiating then: Sacramento rookie Lawrence Funderburke, the Kings’ No. 3 scorer, believes biblical prophecies foretell the world will come to an end in five or six years. . . . Dee Brown, on a promise by Toronto’s 350-something-pound Oliver Miller to get a triple-double against the Celtics, which he missed by 10 points, six assists and two rebounds: “Can you believe that? He’s going to get a triple-double? A triple cheeseburger maybe.” . . . Time heals most wounds: Pacer Coach Larry Bird, asked before a Miami game if he’d ask Riley for tips: “Can’t. Never will. He’s a Laker. Don’t have time for him. That’s the way I remember it. He might be with Miami now, but he’s one of them Laker guys.”