SUMMER SCHOOL

Ah, the summer league, testing ground for all kinds of young prospects, such as . . .

Del Harris?

Yes, he too. The 62-year-old coach of the Lakers will handle their entry this summer, which shows how seriously they’re taking it.

It’s not that they want to win something, having crumpled so ignominiously in the playoffs. It’s that Harris wants to bring Kobe Bryant along personally, Laker brass having decided that Bryant will play a more significant role next season.

Harris said, “Mainly since Kobe didn’t have training camp last year [because of a broken wrist], I just felt I should take personal responsibility to run this camp, to kind of establish the kind of coaching relationship I’d like to have with him.”

A year ago, Bryant, only weeks removed from escorting the pop singer Brandy to the Lower Merion (Pa.) High prom, arrived for the summer league with guns blazing, intent on showing who he was and what he could do. He did, too, with a string of eye-popping, big-number performances.

Then, just before camp, he broke his wrist dunking in a pickup game at Venice Beach. Now that everyone knows who he is, and the Lakers are counting on him, showtime is over.

“This year I want him more involved, more like it would be in the NBA,” Harris said. “I know he can score 40 a game here, but I don’t want him to do that, unless it’s in context. I want him to play the whole game.”

The Laker squad will include Derek Fisher, draftees Dejuan Wheat and Paul Rogers, and free agents Shea Seals of Tulsa, once projected as a lottery pick but unselected on the big day; Ace Custis of Virginia Tech, Jimmy King of Michigan, and James Forrest of Georgia Tech.

The Clippers will field a team, headed by Brent Barry, who has made more headlines than headway but is again being groomed as a starter with the jury out on whether last season’s incumbent at shooting guard, Malik Sealy, a free agent, will be re-signed.

Draftees Maurice Taylor and James Collins will play, although Taylor is visiting his mother and won’t be here this weekend.

The league--formally the Fila Summer Pro League--will have entries from eight other NBA teams, among them the Detroit Pistons with rookie Charles O’Bannon of UCLA, and the New York Knicks.

The Knicks have recently run their own circuit but are coming west to avoid scheduling conflicts with New York’s WNBA team. They’re expecting last season’s rookies, John Wallace, Walter McCarty and Dontae’ Jones, and this season’s top pick, Minnesota’s John Thomas.

There will be several freelance entries, including the Fila All-Stars with Jerry Stackhouse and Nikki McCray, who played on the women’s U.S. Olympic team at Atlanta; the Bryon Russell All-Stars with guess who, the NBA Pros with Cedric Ceballos, and NBA West with Damon Stoudamire and Chris Childs, plus foreign teams from Canada, China, Japan and Mexico.

Fans, however, shouldn’t attend expecting to see any individual. Participation is voluntary and unpaid, and attendance is erratic, more so for the bigger names.

The pros, however, will be watching to see who does what. A year ago, Bryant hinted at what he could do and the Clippers’ Bo Outlaw had a great summer, a precursor of what he would do during the season.

“Anthony Mason, a few years back,” said Knick General Manager Ernie Grunfeld, remembering a young player who came out of nowhere in the summer.

“Matter of fact, we were in L.A. that year. Anthony had played overseas in Turkey and Venezuela and in the USBL. He was a New York City kid and we picked him up. After we saw him practice two-three times, we signed him to a contract. The kid could really play. He’d just never been in the right system.”

The league, once again playing daily at Long Beach State’s Pyramid, opens today and runs through Aug. 3. Games are at 12:15, 2:30, 5 and 7:30.

The Clippers meet NBA West today at 12:15 and the Lakers play Team USA, a 22-and-under squad coached by Utah’s Rick Majerus, at 7:30 p.m.

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Summer League

Facts

* What: Fila Summer Pro League

* When: Daily, Today-Aug. 3

* Where: Long Beach Pyramid

* Tickets: $9 reserved, $7 general admission, available at Pyramid Box office: (562) 985-4949.