Finally, Jordan Joins the Lakers

In a move Phil Jackson had been awaiting for weeks, Michael Jordan joined the Lakers on Sunday night.

Well, he came by and said hello, anyway.

Jordan went into their dressing room before Sunday’s game. Inside, he hugged Jackson and went into the coaches’ room with him.

“I’m just visiting,” Jordan said on his way in.

Jordan later said hello to the Laker players and watched the game from Jerry Buss’ box.

Jackson had suggested that Jordan might practice with the Lakers this season, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

“He said he couldn’t do that,” Jackson said. “He said, ‘Kobe [Bryant] is too dangerous in his present state.’ ”

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Glen Rice, struggling in recent games, sat out Sunday’s game because of an upper respiratory infection.

“I thought he had three shots that could have come in as well as stayed out [Saturday in Vancouver],” Jackson said before Sunday’s game. “That makes a difference to a shooter. He’s not finishing at the hoop on the drive as well as he can.

“His shooting percentage has not been good and he’s the first to admit it but he finds a way to get the scoring done and help us out.”

Rice is 30 for 90 from the field in his last seven games and shooting a career-low 41% this season.

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The first time Jerry Stackhouse met Kobe Bryant, Stackhouse was a sophomore at North Carolina. Bryant was a junior at Lower Merion (Pa.) High School.

Bryant, who used to work out with 76er players after practices at the invitation of then-coach John Lucas, actually played Stackhouse one-on-one when Stackhouse worked out for the 76ers before they drafted him in 1996

Then, after Stackhouse signed, he and Bryant continued to play against each other in pickup games.

“You could definitely tell he was head-and-shoulders above the competition and talent that he was facing there in Philly,” Stackhouse said, “because he could pretty much hold his own with [NBA] guys out there then. . . .