Laker Take Flier on Rider

Isaiah Rider, of all people, is expected to fly into town next week to give his first formal address as a Laker.

It is hoped he will not be two hours late.

It is also hoped he will do so while wearing shoes.

The Lakers must excuse their fans for cheering this latest move only briefly, the hands more immediately needed to cover the eyes.

Rodman once, shame on you.

Rodman twice, shame on me.

It could be wonderful, this marriage of a great shooter to a team that, as soon as it trades Glen Rice, will desperately need one.

It could also be deja P-U.

Instead of acquiring someone who plays with conviction, the Lakers acquired someone who has convictions. (Two, for assault and marijuana use, if you must know).

Instead of finding someone who plays to the crowd, they found someone who has used that crowd as a spittoon.

The team that lasted the longest last year hopes to improve by adding a guy who quit with 18 games left in the regular season?

We’ve been here before, and all that Carmen Electricity is still making our toes tingle.

The thing is, Phil Jackson has also been here before.

Maybe he knows more than we do.

This acquisition shows he certainly thinks he does.

Jackson handled Dennis Rodman after he was added to a championship team in Chicago. Maybe he thinks he can handle Rider.

Jackson understood what sort of team can accommodate an often erratic and selfish but occasionally great player. Maybe he thinks the Lakers are that sort of team.

One thing is for sure. They were not that sort of team two years ago, when Rodman turned the Laker front office into fools and the season into a joke.

Shaquille O’Neal was not a strong enough leader to control him on the court.

Kobe Bryant was not old enough to drag him out of parties.

Kurt Rambis was not secure enough to make him mind.

Maybe Jackson and time and a championship has changed all that.

Or has it?

We’ll find out.

We’ll find out?

It’s odd, using that phrase in regard to a defending champion that should be on solid ground.

But such was the Lakers’ good fortune in winning the title last season that they realize they still need to improve.

And they realize that while Rice might bring them a power forward, he won’t also bring them a shooter.

And they don’t have much money to blow on a straight free- agent deal.

So after a spring of domination, they now face a little desperation.

So we’ll find out.

If nothing else, Jackson has earned the benefit of the doubt. To be sure, O’Neal and Bryant have also earned the right to be trusted like team leaders.

And heck, Rider will “only” earn the seven-year minimum salary of $736,000.

So if he doesn’t work out, they cut him, even if it means after he has been late for the team’s first practice.

That’s not such an outrageous prediction when one considers, Rider was late for the first practice of his pro career.

(The guy hasn’t even been here a day, and already we’ve set the record for describing one’s behavior in italics and parentheses.)

It might be no coincidence that each of Rider’s three former teams--Minnesota, Portland, Atlanta--imploded.

He has shot great, but only when he is doing most of the shooting.

He has played hard, but only when he is making all the rules.

This will be the first time and first team where he has not walked in as the star, as the scorer, as the focus.

Maybe, in a strange way, this will help.

With no pressure and no spotlight, maybe he will be happy playing the role of the misunderstood gamer. It worked for that rainbow-haired actor in Chicago.

But then, maybe Rider’s restlessness will lead him to the sort of clubhouse politics that could turn, say, O’Neal and Bryant against each other again.

If that starts to happen, it is hoped that Jackson will pull the trigger quicker on Rider than he does on timeouts.

This team needs somebody with the sort of playoff fire that Rider, known then as J.R., showed for Portland against the Lakers in 1998.

It doesn’t need somebody who, angry at the booing crowd, will walk off the floor in the middle of a game, motion to his girlfriend in the stands and go home. That also happened against the Lakers.

This town has seen its newest guard as his flying best and despicable worst.

“J.R. [bleeps],” this town has roared, again and again.

“Not anymore,” the Lakers have quietly, hopefully, replied.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.