Rider’s Miss--Team Flight

Eleven hours after J.R. Rider dropped the last of his season-high 24 points on the New Jersey Nets, he stood at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday morning, watching the Lakers’ charter flight leave for New York.

Without him.

Sustained prosperity not being his strongest suit, Rider missed the flight, absorbed a small fine, paid his own airfare, and chased the charter across the country. He apparently arrived in New York on Saturday night and made the team breakfast Sunday morning.

According to Laker Coach Phil Jackson, Rider’s agent telephoned General Manager Mitch Kupchak on Saturday, told him Rider was at the gate only seven minutes late, and would take the next flight.

Rider, who also is wrangling with the NBA regarding the terms of a drug after-care program to which he doesn’t believe he should be held, entered the game against the Knicks late in the first quarter. He scored seven points in 23 minutes.

While it was Jackson who tersely ordered the airplane door closed five minutes after the scheduled departure time, per his team rules, he did not appear to be upset with Rider.

“It’s happened to the best of players,” Jackson said. “It happened to Bill Bradley. It happens to the best of players. I just have a rule that’s hard and strict. You have five minutes. If you’re not there, you’re gone.

“He was there at the breakfast we had this morning. That’s all that’s important to me.”

If it can happen to a future senator . . .

“Oh, I don’t even ask about an excuse,” Jackson said. “Too early in the morning? Might be a good one.”

By many accounts, Rider had been better recently with his time management after several early-season failures. Among his other transgressions, Rider was an hour late to an early-season game at Staples Center, missed the team bus for a game in San Antonio and was late for a game at Golden State.

“I was supposed to be there at 9 [a.m.], I got there at about 9:05, and the plane was still there, but that’s the rules,” Rider said. “I got here and life goes on. I wasn’t penalized for it, couple hundred bucks, I think.”

A light-hearted joke about the missed flight irked Rider.

“Why don’t you get out of my face now, man,” Rider told reporters. “I’ll be cool, but other than that I’m not. Because I know you don’t like me, I don’t like you, but we all got a job to do. Play with me, it’s over now.”

Jackson has appeared unconcerned, allowing Rider plenty of running room.

“With J.R., as with a Dennis Rodman, that’s not the issue,” Jackson said. “The issue is about playing and being ready to play on the court. That’s going to be part of their behavior. It’s either going to be on the line or at the line or over the line. That’s the way they exist. Well, I’m not going to say ‘they.’ That’s the way he exists right now in this situation. But he’s been on the other side of it for a time. It tells me something about his willingness, his preparedness, his desire.”

In a difficult period when their game has deserted them, Laker players barely noted Rider’s absence, though he has played well lately. His 24 points Friday merely extended Rider’s most productive stretch of the season.

“Phil addressed it this morning and said it really wasn’t a big deal, a guy missing a plane,” Kobe Bryant said. “He said he wouldn’t have to pay the fine because he paid his own way to get here. It was first class. He flew better than we did.

“As long as he goes out there on the court and plays hard, which we all know he’s going to do, we don’t have any problems.”

Kupchak, who is traveling with the team, said any discipline concerning Rider would be “the coach’s decision.”