Lakers, Kobe Learning Lessons Without Shaq

Big Guy, come home. All is forgiven, it looks like.

Someone, I forget who--Phil Jackson? Friedrich Nietzsche?--once said that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. For Laker fans, the good news is your team isn’t dead yet.

It is dented some, however.

By the end of Sunday’s 100-94 upset of the Kings here (yes, times have changed), Kobe Bryant was being treated for bursitis of the right hip, as well as a sore right shoulder and aching left elbow.

Bryant is only 22 and used to heal overnight, but since Shaquille O’Neal left, he has been averaging 43 minutes, 15 free-throw attempts and about one injury a game.

“Well, it’s not the age,” Bryant said afterward, grinning or wincing, “it’s the mileage.”

By that standard, he’ll be getting membership information from the AARP soon. We’ll have to wait to see if he and O’Neal mesh more smoothly but one thing is sure, when Shaq returns, Kobe will be happy to see him.

These may be hard times but also good luck. If Jackson had been allowed to set up his own Political Re-Education Camp, it would have looked like this, with the landscape bleak and the clock ticking.

Someone, I forget who--Jackson? Alfred E. Neuman of Mad Magazine?--also said, “What, me worry?”

The Lakers are now No. 5 in the West and if the playoffs started today, they’d be on the road at San Antonio.

Of course, as Jackson is fond of noting lately, the playoffs aren’t starting today.

Before Sunday’s game, he was saying his players have, at least, “gotten to the point where we’re accepting who we are and what we are as a basketball club.”

Not that they’re any great shakes. What they are, Jackson said, is a lot worse on defense than a year ago. But, at least, now they understand that.

How did he feel about falling behind in the West?

“How far back are we from Portland?” Jackson asked.

Three games, starting play Sunday.

“How many in the loss column?”

One.

His point exactly.

Of course, they were also four games in the loss column behind the Kings, but as the Kings proved Sunday, they still have a lot to prove.

Chris Webber, their MVP candidate, took 32 shots and missed 20. He got so upset at getting called for a charge as he reached back to throw down a tomahawk dunk in the first quarter, he was never the same.

He missed a jam in the second quarter and another in the fourth quarter before finally getting a dunk to drop.

Afterward, Webber kept saying he couldn’t talk about what happened, because he’d get fined for criticizing the referees.

However, this proved impossible for him since whatever he talked about kept coming back to the same thing.

“If I’m taking 32 shots I’m not going to miss 20 of them, so I have to shut up.” Webber said.

”. . . It has something to do with getting fouled in the paint. I don’t just miss shots all the time, so it has something to do with that.

”. . . They’re a good team, a well-coached team, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit and just move on. These TV games where the officials want to be the main ones seen and noticed, you’ve got to let that just go and get ready for the games next week.”

Well, someone said, you’re still the best in the West.

“We need to get that respect on the court by officials,” Webber said.

It has been a long time since a Laker victory on their home court over the Kings could be considered inspirational--actually it has never happened--but this one was right up there for them.

After losing two of their first three games without O’Neal, or whenever Bryant dropped below 44 points, they have won the last two. They have one more game--here against the Suns--before the All-Star break and two days to rest for it.

Then, when they start up again Feb. 13 in New Jersey, they hope to have Shaq back.

Of course, Bryant may not play in the All-Star game, either, if they have to hook him up to machines in the training room beforehand and shoot electric current through him, as they have been lately.

Today, he’s going to go back in and have more current shot through him. These days, he’s so whipped, he doesn’t even shoot on off-days.

When was the last time that happened?

“I don’t know,” he said laughing. “It’s been a while. It’s been a while.”

Probably since he was 5 and rain washed out the neighborhood dirt court.

It may not be fun for all involved, but Bryant is getting a chance to carry a team and O’Neal is getting a chance to step back and reexamine the situation, before it goes from problematic to hopeless.

Let’s just put it this way, if this doesn’t do it, nothing is likely to.