Two Stars Are in Alignment

Kobe Bryant, bright-eyed despite the rain the poured down outside KeyArena, smiled at the memory of a feud, since gone good.

Shaquille O’Neal smacked Bryant’s hand, and the two of them laughed Friday night at a joke, O’Neal claiming his investigative cover had been blown by stories of his becoming a law enforcement officer.

The days that they’d pass shoulder to shoulder without looking at each other are done, it appears, driven away by a difficult championship earned together, and perhaps by what Coach Phil Jackson called an improved “spirituality,” team-wide.

“I think it was part of the process,” Bryant said. “Things got out of hand. One thing we didn’t do, we didn’t sit down and talk about it. In retrospect, we should have done that right then.”

Instead, it lingered for years, and cost them who knows how much in victories, in peacefulness, and in “spirituality.”

“I remember my father used to tell me, if you struggle when it’s really, really, really, really hard,” Bryant said, “when you get out of that struggle, it’s going to be really, really, really, really good.”

And so it appears for the Lakers, off to a great start, enjoying each other and the ride.

“You know what? Last year we didn’t know how it was going to turn out,” Bryant said. “It was one of those fluke things.”

He mentioned the return of Derek Fisher, and of his own health. Then he and O’Neal had a loaded conversation, the topic being team goals, the underlying message about how they should play together, and live together.

“But,” Bryant said, “we don’t want to go through that again.”

The Lakers appear more emotionally sound, beginning with Bryant and O’Neal. Then, today is the first of December. The hard part has not yet begun.

“It’s the experience they went through last year,” Jackson said. “It was a nasty affair, you know. There was some unfaithfulness. Then there’s a recapitulation, and then there’s a little call to the altar and a remarriage. They got together again as a team, grew together as a basketball club and did it at the right time.”

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Bison Dele, nee Brian Williams, has told his agent he would like to return to the NBA.

Jackson said the undersized Lakers could use a player such as Dele, whom Jackson had in Chicago, but that Dele probably would not fit into the Laker budget. Because of luxury tax concerns, the Lakers are carrying only 13 players.

TONIGHT

vs. Minnesota

7:30, Fox Sports Net

Site--Staples Center

Radio--KLAC (570)

Records--Lakers 14-1, Timberwolves 10-4.

Record vs. Timberwolves (2000-01)-- 3-1.

Update--Minnesota, whose heavy use of a zone defense was said to have fueled its 10-2 start, has lost two in a row to hot-shooting teams. The Clippers beat the Timberwolves by 19 points Wednesday, and then Coach Flip Saunders defended his pet defense, so expect more of it tonight. The Milwaukee Bucks stayed with the Lakers for three quarters Tuesday with a two-three zone, eventually losing by 19. Kevin Garnett averages 20.8 points and Wally Szczerbiak averages 18.4.

Tickets--(800) 462-2849