PARTING SHOTS

Just when the sun was shining in Lakerland again, after the team completed a four-team trade that brought in Horace Grant to fill the power forward spot, here came agent David Falk to throw down hail and thunderbolts from his cell phone.

In an interview late Thursday night he said “the Lakers definitely could have gotten more” in exchange for his client Glen Rice, that the team has come to place economics above winning, and that it broke “commitments” to Rice.

For now, it counts as little more than post-departure venting. Whether Falk’s claims lead to a change in the Lakers’ good-faith reputation around the league remains to be seen.

Falk made it clear that, in his mind, the problem lies with Laker owner Jerry Buss and not Jerry West or Mitch Kupchak, who took over the personnel duties when West stepped aside this summer.

“Mitch Kupchak had nothing to do with it,” Falk said. “Conversely, I would say Jerry West was very supportive of Glen. But Jerry West does not own the team.”

However, it would seem both the front office and the coaching staff would be the targets of Falk’s allegation that Rice’s appeal declined because of how they handled him. Coach Phil Jackson sat Rice for long stretches of crucial games, and the Lakers never even hinted that they had interest in re-signing him once the season ended.

“I think the Lakers did a textbook job in how not to maintain the star value of a player,” Falk said. “He left, and they were barely able to get a 35-year-old Horace Grant. That happened because his role on the team diminished.”

Rice didn’t help matters by shooting a career-low 43%, and his 15.9 points per game and 36.7% three-point shooting were the lowest since his rookie year in 1989-90. Rice wasn’t happy as the third option behind Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and he didn’t fit into Jackson’s triangle offense.

Because of the salary cap rules, his best opportunity to get the large contract he sought would be to re-sign with the Lakers and then head elsewhere in a trade. That way the Lakers wouldn’t have had to watch him walk away for nothing.

Falk was also trying to get Patrick Ewing out of New York. After several weeks of phone calls and more than a few dashed hopes, the Lakers, Knicks, SuperSonics and Suns finally worked out a 12-player deal Wednesday that, in the most significant moves, sent Rice (with a four-year, $36-million contract in hand), Travis Knight and Phoenix’s Luc Longley to New York, Ewing to Seattle, Grant and Greg Foster to Los Angeles and Chris Dudley to Phoenix.

“We exchanged upwards of 50 offers of different players for the Lakers--50--before consummating this deal,” Falk said. “The reason they were rejected was not because they weren’t a great trade from a basketball talent standpoint, but because they didn’t fit within the financial parameters of Laker management.”

Buss is currently vacationing in Europe, but Kupchak said Friday that: “We have never placed the economics above winning. I could speak from my years in the front office and my perception as a player. I was one of the beneficiaries of Dr. Buss’ generosity 19 years ago. With the exception of A.C. Green [who left for Phoenix in 1993], we have never lost a player due to free agency that we felt keeping was in the best interest of the club.

“I say that not to disparage Glen Rice, but only to indicate, that due to our depth at the small forward position and our lack of depth in the frontcourt, we felt it was more prudent to pursue a bigger player or players.”

As for Falk’s claim that the Lakers turned down better offers: “If there was a deal that we could have done that was more advantageous to us than the one we did, we would have done it,” Kupchak.

This certainly wasn’t the ending anyone had in mind when the Lakers traded Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell for Rice in the middle of the lockout-shortened 1999 season. In essence, they traded two young players for one older one, then traded him for an even older player.

“When Glen went to Los Angeles, there were certain commitments made to him,” Falk said. “The commitments were not honored. He was very upset about it. We had a meeting with ownership and had other commitments made that were not honored.”

Falk wouldn’t be more specific about the commitments.

“I’ll put it this way: If what Glen was assured was honored, he wouldn’t be in New York today,” Falk said.

“Our vision of Glen’s contribution to the Lakers was that he would be with us till the end of his career,” Kupchak said. “Obviously that was shared with him. It was never our intention to bring him here for a year and a half.”

The short version of what happened is that things changed. A new coach, for one. Glaring deficiencies at power forward, for another. Rice didn’t fit in the triangle, and was their only marketable asset to get help.

Another thing that changed is Falk’s opinion of the Lakers.

“My trust [in them] has been shaken to the core,” Falk said.

It’s nothing more than hurt feelings at the moment. The Lakers don’t have any Falk clients on the roster, there are no impending free-agent negotiations with Falk clients.

But if Falk is right and the Lakers are getting tight, there could be “recruitment” issues for the franchise.

Do they take care of their players? The Lakers have a payroll that exceeds the $35.5-million salary cap by more than $25 million. Shaquille O’Neal has three years remaining on the second-largest contract in the NBA. Kobe Bryant received an extension at the maximum amount ($70 million) with a minimum amount of haggling last year. Rick Fox was re-signed for $25 million last year after two seasons of playing in L.A. for less than market value.

The thing to watch is how and when the Lakers handle O’Neal’s extension, which can max out at $83.5 million for three years. He playfully asked Buss about it in front of the media after winning the championship, and Buss said he’d give him whatever he wanted.

Buss was out of the country for most of the summer and Kupchak was preoccupied with working out a Rice trade, pushing Shaq’s paperwork off his desktop.

“The assurance and the discussions that lead to that assurance, to some degree, have occurred and will continue on until everybody’s comfortable that he ends his career here,” Kupchak said. “It’s something we’re aware of and will be worked on.”

Buss is wary of incurring extra fees from the luxury tax, which will impose a dollar-for-dollar surcharge for teams over the salary cap beginning with the 2001-2002 season.

It’s a different era in the NBA.

“It isn’t in Portland, it isn’t in New York, it isn’t in Dallas,” Falk contends. “I don’t think you can win a championship if the bottom line is the primary consideration.”

Portland and Dallas have billionaire owners in Paul Allen and Mark Cuban, and the Knicks are owned by Cablevision. Buss, who made his fortune in real estate, doesn’t have as many commas in his bank register.

Falk counters that the Lakers are one of the most successful franchises in the NBA.

Staples Center is like a giant cash register. Playoff games are when teams really pull in the loot, and it didn’t hurt that the Lakers had 13 playoff home games--just two short of the maximum. And they raised ticket prices in the lower level by $10 a seat for the upcoming season.

Falk was on the phone for more than an hour, encompassing his drive from the airport to his home in Maryland. It was almost 1:30 a.m. Eastern time when he hung up. When he wants to get a point across, the only thing that can stop him is his phone’s battery.

Kupchak was reluctant to get into a battle of words. The truth is, the Lakers don’t have to. Their statements can only be made in dollar amounts, the real language of the NBA.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.