ALL STAR REPORT / EAST 135, WEST 114

One reason Bryant took all those shots early was that Payton kept throwing him the ball.

“I just wanted to make him relax,” Payton said. “I told him I’ll get him the ball. All he has to do is relax. . . . He’s young, came in here, he’s doing a lot of things. I just wanted to get him used to all the lights and all that. He did a good job. Like I said, he’s going to be great.”

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East Coach Larry Bird, who didn’t want to be here to begin with, hopes he’ll never have to do it again.

“I’m not going to be in this job very long,” he said. “I don’t expect to stay here 10 or 15 years. Hopefully, they’ll make rules where you can’t do it again for five, six years and I’ll be fine.”

Bird on his game plan: “Give it to Michael and get out of the way.”

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Jayson Williams, Net forward and lone representative from the New York metropolitan area: “Well, I’ll tell you what, it was a dream come true for me. When I got on the bus this morning, I looked back and said, ‘Wow, this is the first time I have been close to a million dollars worth of cargo.’ ”

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Just call him the Dishin’ Dutchman. You expect highlight plays from Bryant, but not from Indiana’s slow-footed Rik Smits, who rifled a behind-the-back pass to Williams for a layup, bringing the East players cheering off the bench.

Said Williams: “Rik told me, ‘Man, thank you for catching that ball.’ I didn’t know what he was going to do with it. He was running full speed and he ain’t got no brakes.”

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Who was there? Apparently, anybody who had starred in or directed a movie, walked a runway, etc.

The list included: Bill Murray, Timothy Hutton, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey, LL Cool J, Rick Moranis, Michael J. Fox, Tyra Banks, Elle MacPherson, Andy Garcia, Danny DeVito, Rhea Pearlman, Greg Kinnear, Jimmy Smits, Ray Charles, Jack Nicholson, Spike Lee, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bette Midler, Stevie Wonder and Evander Holyfield.

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Maybe they aren’t like Batman and Robin any more: O’Neal, who recently predicted his former teammate, Penny Hardaway, would leave Orlando, was asked if he’d said anything to him during the game.

O’Neal: “No.”

Would he have anything to say to him?

O’Neal: “No.”

In regards to his future?

O’Neal: “No, I have nothing to say.”

To Hardaway?

O’Neal: “I mean, to him, to you, to anyone. I said what I said and that’s it.”