Laker Ceremony Has Bit of a Poetic Touch

Kobe Bryant shook his right fist, bit his lower lip and nodded his head as the roar grew around him.

Shaquille O’Neal waved his left hand, then trotted across the court and swallowed his mother, Lucille, in a hug. The people around her sighed in spite of themselves.

There were private moments on Wednesday night at Staples Center. Mostly, though, there was joy 12 years and five months in coming.

As Utah Jazz players shuffled their feet in their locker room, the Lakers celebrated last season’s NBA championship with 20,000 of their closest friends. Phil Jackson recited a poem he authored, artist Seal sang a tribute, fireworks blew, and after the players received their diamond-studded rings, Queen’s “We are the Champions” played as a cable raised a gold and purple banner toward the rafters.

“I’m just here to congratulate the city of Los Angeles,” said Stern, standing with Laker executive vice president Jeanie Buss.

“Chick,” he said, “let’s give out the rings.”

Chick Hearn, the legendary broadcaster, called them up, one by one. Stern handed them their small wooden boxes, each holding the ring that represented what they achieved last season--67 wins, an improbable fourth quarter in Game 7 of the Western Conference final, the six-game victory in the NBA finals.

Just like that, it was old times again in Los Angeles. The banner went up, the rings went on, and the new building was christened, for a team that has more on its mind.

O’Neal, about tapped out on patrol cars because of that championship, intends to overnight his ring to his father, Philip Harrison, who lives outside Orlando, Fla. Derek Fisher, on crutches since his surgery more than a month ago, walked to center court. In fact, he limped less than Ron Harper, who before the game poured the three rings he won with Chicago into a heap on his palm.

“Hard work,” Harper said. “The work that we did as a team is what I’ll think about.”

He smiled.

“It means I played in 105 basketball games last year,” he said.

The ceremonies run together, he claimed.

“They’re all the same. The fans cheer. Then you bring [the rings] back in here and go out and play basketball,” he said. Then he laughed. It’s more.

John Salley arrived in a long black suit, spied Rick Fox and said, “Your teeth look great.”

With A.C. Green in Miami, and Travis Knight and Glen Rice in New York, Salley represented the departed teammates. Salley has four rings. The Laker ring, he said, would go on his left hand, beside his wedding ring. They all had their plans, of course.

Jackson will wear his in the playoffs. He always wears the last one he won.

He surprised everyone with his poem, but he’ll always have a touch of beatnik in him.

Of O’Neal, Jackson said, “He carried this team on his back.” Then he praised Harper and his “leadership in triangle lore.” He mentioned Jerry West and finished with two lines, both of which drew cheers.

“If they stay on track, we might win back to back,” he said. And then concluded, “With your support, I think, we might just repeat.”

Jackson predicted his memories during the ceremony would turn to the growth of his first Laker team, its ability by the end to include everybody, and its flat insistence to win.

Harper wasn’t as sentimental.

“If I see anybody with tears in their eyes, I’m going to slap them in their head,” he said, playfully. “You can be happy and not shed any tears. Soap operas, you can cry. Over a ring? You cry?”

An hour later, as the house filled, a public address announcer bellowed.

“Ladies and gentleman, the defending world champions . . . ,” and Staples Center, for a moment, wasn’t a place for decorum and cool. They stood and cared and applauded--and made a dozen private moments very public.