Lakers’ 7th Championship Run Was Born of Humble Beginnings

They gathered for the first time on the court on a Friday in October 1996. The site was the University of Hawaii’s Special Events Arena, a three-point shot from the home of training camps past, venerable Klum Gym with its pull-out wooden bleachers, an on-campus arena that could have been rented out as a sauna.

What Klum lacked in air circulation--everything--it made up for in character, like the way players could work up a sweat in preparation for the season ahead, an aspect the coaches appreciated, even if all that took was lacing up at the start of practice.

The Special Events Arena was different. It was a modern structure, dominated by shades of green for a tropical feel, this being Honolulu and all, and a little less than 2 years old, still as if the plastic wrapper had just been taken off. It was a source of pride. Attention-getting. Air-conditioned! Who knew if the bathrooms worked, but the place sparkled. What a perfect starting point for these Lakers.

They were fresh and shiny and powerful and fleet, a sight to behold, before anyone knew if something was terribly wrong with the wiring. It was the first training camp for Shaquille O’Neal after he had been lured from the Orlando Magic with a free-agent contract worth $120 million over seven years. Kobe Bryant was a rookie, 18 going on 34, captivating and gifted and determined. Derek Fisher was an unknown first-round draft pick, but Jerry West picked him, so he must be good, right?

Even with Nick Van Exel back for his fourth season and Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos and Coach Del Harris their third, newness was everywhere after the largest player turnover from one season to the next in franchise history. Out with the old. Forget the Showtime comparisons, this would be the Lake Show. Their name, their own identity.

What a show it became, that first season and the three that would follow. Blowouts and flameouts, power trips but no power forward, past journeys to Lake Havasu that came back to haunt and, finally, to the top of the mountain.

That climax came Monday night, when the Indiana Pacers and the confetti fell. Owner Jerry Buss, who made the massive financial investment in that fateful summer of ‘96, was there, his voice at times cracking as he talked of the achievement. Executive Vice President Jerry West, who made the emotional investment that nearly drove him from the job and still might, was not. Trophies were hoisted and kissed. Bryant jumped into O’Neal’s arms. Hug-a-Shaq.

“I think there was always a belief that we would get to this point, probably sooner than [we] did,” Fisher said. “We really felt like we had a group of players that was capable of reaching this point. It was just a matter of everybody getting on the same page. Not that any one guy wanted to win any more than the other guys, but just figuring out how to be more of a group, instead of just a group of individuals.

“I think a lot of our guys felt that pressure from the outside. When you’re young, like some of us still are, you worry a lot about what other people think. Four years ago, when we all first got here, that really was the case, where we would read into and buy into what people had to say. We really weren’t that good yet, but people expected us to be that good.

“It was pretty tough, individually for a lot of people and as a group. We all had our aches and pains and things we had to deal with personally throughout the whole thing. I think what made it tougher is that we are from Los Angeles, a big market, and on a team where people pay attention to what we do. Especially for a younger team like we were. We’re a little older now, but the first couple years it made it really hard.”

Just to get in position to sign O’Neal, it took a roster purge so dramatic and a set of circumstances so unique that the Orlando Magic investigated tampering charges. Some media outlets reported that the contract was a done deal before open bidding had even been allowed. West just about corkscrewed himself into the ground over that ordeal, taking the allegations as personal affronts to his integrity, wounds that live on.

The Lakers arranged a draft-day deal with the Charlotte Hornets for the best of all reasons, to be able to get rid of something and get something at the same time. They weren’t trying to dump Vlade Divac so much as his salary, creating more cap room to offer O’Neal. That he played a position that might need to be vacated made it an even better fit.

The Hornets had a glut of shooting guards and small forwards and needed a center, and the Lakers needed a rookie in return for Divac because the rookie would count a fraction under the cap, and, well, there was this guy coming out of high school in Philadelphia . . .

West coveted Bryant apart from the other reasons the trade was so ideal. The best workout he had ever seen by a rookie prospect, West called the two showings Bryant made for the Lakers. So it was settled. The Hornets would draft him for the Lakers and then trade him for Divac.

Except it wasn’t settled. Divac had no interest in leaving his adopted hometown and threatened to retire rather than play for the Hornets. The trade wasn’t official because of the league-wide moratorium from the labor dispute. The Atlanta Hawks, yet to sign Dikembe Mutombo, entered the picture, which would have cost the Lakers Bryant. Making everything tougher to figure out, Divac was in Germany with the Yugoslav Olympic team.

Finally, on June 30, four days after the teams had agreed to the deal, Divac relented. The trade became official July 11, after the embargo was lifted by the NBA, almost at the same instant the Lakers upped their offer to O’Neal to $95.5 million. They called it their best and final offer.

At least it was at the time. Five days later, July 16, Anthony Peeler and George Lynch were traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies for almost nothing: the right for the Lakers to flip-flop second-round picks with the Grizzlies in two future drafts. It was a salary dump.

But that move, along with renouncing several players who wouldn’t have been re-signed anyway, the Lakers were able to make their final, final offer to O’Neal. Seven years, $120 million.

Deal.

Everything changed in an instant. The Lakers had not merely bagged the elephant, but in the same off-season, in a matter of a month, acquired the two stars who would lead them to the championship. Within another 36 hours, they spent $49 million to re-sign Elden Campbell for seven years and $2.2 million for three years to sign Fisher, the 24th pick in the draft. Campbell was traded 2 1/2 years later, but Fisher would also play a significant role in the drive to the title, containing guard Travis Best and denying the Pacers a key offensive weapon.

The 1996-97 season began with Cedric Ceballos and Campbell at forwards, O’Neal at center, Van Exel and Jones at guards. In January, Ceballos’ oft-contentious Laker career, lowlighted by his Havasu getaway in 1995-96, ended with a trade to the Phoenix Suns for Robert Horry, supplying another piece of the eventual championship team. By the end of that first year of the Lake Show, they became the first team to win at least 55 games and play three rookies--Bryant, Fisher and Travis Knight--at least 900 minutes.

The summer of ’97 produced the next critical free-agent moment. Rick Fox, with chances to sign elsewhere for much more money and the guarantee of much more playing time, took one year and $1 million from the Lakers. When that was done, he would have to sign another one-year contract because of salary-cap constraints, before finally getting the payday before the 1999-2000 season, six years and $25 million.

He had gone from starting small forward under Del Harris to a role player under Phil Jackson, but there is no minimizing the impact of Fox’s original decision. In the years of false illusions, when players would get caught up in the hype about Team of the Future, blah, blah, blah, he was always grounded. That became as important a presence as his tenacity on the court, sparking duels with Reggie Miller and half of the Portland Trail Blazers in these playoffs alone.

It was also a critical signing for the Lakers because they were able to get a desirable player--the Cleveland Cavaliers offered in the neighborhood of $20 million in Fox’s original free-agent rush--at a bargain rate. The salary cap had not held them back.

By the 1998-99 season, or what remained of a gutted schedule because of the lockout, the internal problems were considerable, but at least the roster moves had mostly worked out. The biggest problem came from the guys who weren’t going anywhere, O’Neal and Bryant, two heroes of a city locked in a turf war. So much for the notion that tensions would ease after Van Exel was traded the previous summer.

And then things turned even worse. Dennis Rodman was signed, then released. Harris was fired and Kurt Rambis hired after 12 games, after Buss showed a lack of commitment by refusing to give Harris an extension, a perception players likely picked up. Two of the best defenders, Jones and Campbell, were traded to the Hornets for Glen Rice as the years-long search for a shooter continued.

The ending was the same. A maddening playoff loss, the coach and the stars at the center of another meltdown. When the Lakers and Jackson showed mutual interest, Rambis’ short time on the bench was over.

Jackson was signed to a five-year, $30-million contract, and the hammer Harris and Rambis never had. The day of June 16, 1999, proved to be every bit the important moment in Laker history as the O’Neal signing. By the end of Jackson’s first season, the one that had reached heights like no other in 12 years, questions to players about what had been the biggest difference from past failings were met with a simple response.

“Phil.”

Jackson was everything the Lakers had expected, dynamic and successful and, uh, interesting. They embraced the structure and the discipline. And those yoga sessions! Wild times. So much about the new coach was different.

“The first meditation session, everybody was really relaxed,” guard Brian Shaw said. “Some guys fell asleep. Because of that, they were like, ‘Well, this is cool. We can kind of take a little nap.’ Then . . . we got more into it, started learning how to relax but still be alert. And then we had a 16-game winning streak, a 19-game winning streak while we’re doing all of this stuff. None of us had experienced anything like that before, so we’re like, hey, there’s really something here.

“When he first would mention that we were going to meditate or do yoga or he handed out books, everybody just kind of looked like, ‘What is this?’ But you can’t argue with success. You have a coach who’s won six championships as a coach in the NBA, he’s won a championship as a CBA coach, as well as a player in this league, he’s had Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, two of the top 50 players, buy into his system. How can you argue with that?”

No one tried. Plus, Jackson brought in the believers to help convince the uncertain. Ron Harper, his starting guard from three Chicago championship teams, signed as a free agent and had a huge role in the latest title, on the court and in bringing Bryant along. John Salley, another ex-Bull, beat out Benoit Benjamin for a roster spot because of what he would bring to the locker room.

On a team with two young stars, the AARP contingent made a contribution the likes of which are impossible to calculate. Not just Jackson’s old allies, either. A.C. Green, acquired in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks in the off-season, was the only Laker to start every regular-season game, then started every one in the playoffs too. Shaw, signed as a free agent, was a key reserve at guard.

“We’ll never know whether it was Kobe kind of seeing the bigger picture or just kind of overnight figuring it out or Shaquille finally getting to a point where his game is better or whether it’s Phil Jackson,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “Certainly those are all factors. But I’ve always said that we’ve had three really pleasant surprises this year. I’m not going to mention John Salley, but he also is a pleasant surprise. But Brian Shaw, A.C. Green and Ron Harper, they have been three integral pieces, players that, first of all, are veterans, have all been through the battles.”

Said Harper: “They were young [before]. Flyers. They just played. ‘I’ve got to shoot the ball. He got to shoot the ball. I’m not having any shots.’ Us guys who know the game don’t care who’s shooting the ball. The only thing we want to do is get a chance. ‘Let’s be on a good team.’ That’s all we ask.”

Turned out they were on a very good team. Not a great one, because the all-powerful don’t regularly allow opponents extended playoff life, but good enough to prove the class of the league, with two superstars still young enough to see this as a regular occurrence for the future. Just like everyone always figured.

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How the Lakers Were Built

DRAFT

1996 Derek Fisher (first)

1998 John Celestand* (second)

1999 Devean George (first)

TRADE

1996 Kobe Bryant (from Charlotte)

1997 Robert Horry (from Phoenix)

1998 Travis Knight (from Boston)**

1998 Tyronn Lue (from Denver)*

1999 Glen Rice (from Charlotte)

1999 A.C. Green (from Dallas)

FREE AGENTS

1996 Shaquille O’Neal

1997 Rick Fox

1999 Ron Harper

1999 John Salley

1999 Brian Shaw

*--Not on playoff roster; **--Knight signed with the Lakers as a free agent in 1996, left as a free agent after one season and was reacquired in a trade.