Rice Still Boiling Mad and He Blames Jackson

Glen Rice said there were times last season when he simply had to speak up. Had to. He said he would sit there in the fourth quarter, on the bench, watching the Lakers win without him, or lose without him, and it would just come boiling up.

Rice, the reputed shooter. Rice, the all-star. Rice, the, uh, husband. On the bench. It sickened him.

And so he would walk right up to Phil Jackson and let him know why he should be playing.

“As far as his approach to the game, it’s good,” Rice said. “Because mentally, you’ve got to be just as ready as physically. So, I agree with him on that. I always went along with his program. It’s just that, you know, when I voiced my opinion about sitting down in the fourth quarter, I guess God thought it was a sin.”

God. Phil Jackson?

“Yeah,” Rice said.

The Lakers play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, four months after the four-team, 12-player trade that, among other things, sent the mercurial Rice to the Knicks.

Rice got his four-year, $36-million contract, which the Lakers would not have paid. The Lakers drew the ire of agent David Falk, but that seemed worth saving $9 million annually. After the Laker championship--well before it, actually--Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Jackson decided that what the Lakers required was a power forward.

Without Rice, the plan went, Kobe Bryant could move gradually into his natural position of small forward. In the meantime, the club was comfortable with Rick Fox as the transition player there.

The bottom line, though, was Rice shot a career-low 43% from the field, and his field-goal percentage had fallen three consecutive seasons. He also was a defensive liability.

In a 10-minute conversation with a handful of writers in New York this week, Rice admitted he was not displeased with the turmoil that has settled on the Lakers. He also said he believes the Lakers would have a better chance to repeat were he still in Los Angeles, among other things.

Mostly, however, he made it clear he resents Jackson.

“I don’t think Phil wanted me there from Day 1,” Rice said. “The moment he got there he was talking about how he wanted Scottie [Pippen], how he wanted [Toni] Kukoc. He never came out and said, ‘Hey, I want Glen Rice.’ That led me to believe that he never wanted me in the first place. That’s fine. He has his wish.”

Rice has been bothered by arch pain in his left foot and recently the pain moved into the heel. He was examined by a specialist last week in Toronto, and he is improving.

Though still finding minutes and shots hard to come by, Rice has been praised by Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy for his patience and his defense. Conversely, Rice said he rarely spoke to Jackson, and said he often had to resist the urge to grab Jackson and demand to know what he had against him.

“It took a whole lot,” Rice said. “I would go home, carry it home, and have discussions with my wife, and it was getting at me. A lot of times it was hard to go out there and concentrate and play basketball.”

His memories of a championship season he assumed would be glorious, are not.

“When I do think about it, you know, I’m pretty messed up,” Rice said. “You wish it could have happened under better circumstances, but it didn’t. I realize that, and I move on. When I see them going through what they’re going through now, it brings a little smile to my face.

“I think it would have been a lot easier for them to have an opportunity to repeat if I was there,” Rice said. “But, hey, I’m in New York now. So, I’m going to make it easier for us to try to get there.”

Rice also had advice for his former teammates, struggling to find a mix between the game and their personalities.

“I tell you what,” Rice said, “it’s much harder to try and win with just two guys and you don’t have a lot of guys they’re willing to use to spread the floor. They’ve got guys who are capable, but they’re not giving them the chance to prove their worth. So, until they let someone else step in and have that opportunity to space the floor, they’re going to struggle the rest of the year.”

Jackson was asked if it was Rice the Lakers missed, if that was the reason the offense occasionally bogged down and the victories are so much harder to come by.

After a five-second pause, he said, “I’m not going to say yes or no to that. I mean, of course we miss Glen Rice. But, no, that’s not the issue at all. I mean, that has nothing to do with this. It has to do with a number of things. Or, just the simple fact we’re not as good as we were last year. And, the league is a little bit better than they were last year. And we can get better. We just can’t pick this as the final answer. Right now we’re not playing very good basketball. On top of not playing great basketball, we haven’t got the amount of energy to hustle and recover and do the things necessary to win. So that’s the problem. But the answer is not the people or personnel.”

It wasn’t an apology. It wasn’t supposed to be one. Glen Rice will have to take it, though.