Lakers’ Bryant Ready to Swish $70.8-Million Bank Shot

More than the relief of having his first huge deal completed, even more than the money itself, Kobe Bryant relishes one specific aspect of the six-year, $70.8-million contract extension he is set to sign today.

“This is going to be my first contract I get to sign by myself,” the Laker swingman said Thursday after practice at L.A. Southwest College. “My other contract [signed as a rookie in 1996], I had to have my parents’ approval.

“I couldn’t sign on my own. I was 17, underage, so my mother had to come into the office, and I signed and she had to sign. And then when I turned 18, I had to sign [it again].”

So now he’s 20, set for life, making as much as he can with an organization he loves, and he will be an ancient 26 when the extension--it averages $11.813 million a year--expires after the 2004-05 season.

Once the extension kicks in next season, Bryant will be the Lakers’ second-highest paid player, behind Shaquille O’Neal. And yet Bryant isn’t pegged as a starter, at least for now.

But do not fret that Laker owner Jerry Buss is throwing money away on this deal, Bryant said with a grin.

“I could be starting,” he said. “It really doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that I’m going to be the best player I can be.

“It’s a six-year contract, whether [I start] this season or maybe next season or the year after, I’m going to be the best player I can be, I can guarantee you that.

“I’m going to be worth $70 million. I’m going to be worth it. Don’t even worry about that. I’m going to be worth it.”

This does not mean, however, that Bryant is eager to leave the Pacific Palisades home he shares with his mother, father and two sisters.

“There’s a lot of things I want to learn, as far as like taking care of the house and getting in habits of cleaning up the house, cooking . . . that I’m really not doing right now,” Bryant said.

“When you have somebody who’s there, who’s going to cook for you, make your bed, you know, do the things that a mother does, I’m in no hurry to move out at all.”

Bryant said he also is in no rush to be loaded down with even greater expectations or to be measured strictly by his salary.

There is, he confirmed, an “out” clause built into the deal that will allow him to become a free agent after five seasons, if he chooses.

But Bryant’s new deal doesn’t alter any of Coach Del Harris’ plans for the Lakers’ playing rotation.

“Coaches don’t pay attention to contracts,” Harris said. “Kobe’s going to play a big role. He’s played a big role the last two years. He’s not likely to play a lesser role than he’s been playing.”

With the Lakers scheduled to open their exhibition schedule tonight against the Clippers at the Great Western Forum, Harris said he probably will go with the same starting lineup that closed last season: O’Neal at center, Robert Horry and Rick Fox at the forwards, Eddie Jones and Derek Fisher at the guards.

Harris has talked about using a power-forward rotation of Horry, Travis Knight and Corie Blount, and another at shooting guard and small forward of Fox, Jones and Bryant.

But for now, there will be no changes, Harris said.

Laker Notes

So he will be fresh for the two weekend exhibition games, point guard Derek Fisher was held out of the final 100 minutes of Thursday’s 2-hour 40-minute practice. The team said he had some tendinitis in his right knee, but Fisher said his right ankle, which he tweaked during training camp, was bothering him. . . . Rookie Sam Jacobson did not practice because of a nagging hip injury and will sit out tonight’s practice game against the Clippers.

Coach Del Harris said he was happy he had gotten his players--aching from training camp two-a-days and Wednesday night’s scrimmage--as focused as they were Thursday. “When I went in there and saw how many guys were being treated, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh! Here we’ve got about four practices [before the start of the season] and I’m going to lose this one.’ That was not the case, in fact. I was glad to get this one in there.”