At Crunch Time, Bryant Calls Mr. Clutch’s Number

Kobe Bryant had planned it as a surprise and a tribute to his mentor, Jerry West.

He wanted to wear West’s No. 44 in Monday’s parade and rally at Staples Center, but it was Father’s Day when he decided to go shopping, he said, and he could not find an open store with the Laker jersey he needed.

“So I had to call him up and ask for one,” Bryant said.

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/ WEST TURNED on the TV Monday, and there was Kobe wearing No. 44 with “West” across his back.

“It was touching, it really was,” West said. “I wanted to say, ‘No, don’t do it,’ when I got the call, but I’ll tell you this, it was touching.”

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/ BRYANT, OF course, credits West for sitting down with him earlier this year and talking basketball at a time when some people were seriously criticizing him for not playing a team-oriented game.

West, careful to remain in the background and reserve comment for most of the year, said it’s natural to feel a special kinship with a player like Bryant, who began his career with the Lakers and at such an early age.

“I’m there to offer encouragement,” he said. “And like everyone else, I think it’s going to be great fun to watch his progress.”

The Lakers’ success, he said, is something “wonderful and heartwarming, especially the way the fans have taken to this team.

“In any sports-related business there are so many good times, and the Lakers have had an awful lot of success. But this year it might even be better. There was unrest there for awhile, and to watch them band together and get on the same page has been really gratifying to me.

“When basketball is played correctly with good players it is something great to see. It looks easy, but it’s not. That’s a tribute not only to the players, but to Phil Jackson and his staff, who got the players to buy into what they wanted. That’s Phil’s plan, having all the players touch the ball, and watching everyone contribute--that’s how basketball should be played.”

The Lakers won the NBA Finals a year ago, but it was too much for a weary West, who was so uptight he no longer could watch the games. And so he stepped aside as the team’s architect.

“There’s the stress and pressure we all feel when we do a job, but some people handle it better than others,” he said. “The last two or three years I didn’t handle it very well.”

During this year’s Laker run to the title, West not only watched the team on TV, but took in a few games at Staples Center.

“I’m relaxed now,” he said.

Reflecting on the Lakers’ overwhelming performance against the Spurs, West cracked, “As good as it gets--something Jack Nicholson knows.”

Although he has been off for a year, he still has en eye for detail.

“I think there’s a defining moment in all sports, one particular play that spurs a team to greater heights, and I saw that in the second game against Philadelphia when it took the lead and the Lakers kept on coming back,” West said. “They were like a steamroller at the end of the game.

“And then going into Philly I just had the sense the Lakers were going to be dominant. I think they were also tired of reading about the other team having heart.”

The other team, of course, lacked Shaquille O’Neal.

“Watching him--he’s scary good,” West said. “And he’s going to get better. I look at the players in the past and I look at him, and none of them would have enjoyed playing against him.”

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/ WHILE THOUSANDS and thousands of people were standing in the parking lots opposite Bryant wearing Laker jerseys with No. 8 across their chests, Bryant said he wanted everyone to note No. 44.

“Oh man,” he said. “Jerry West was my mentor. And with everything that went on this season--he meant so much to me.”

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/ THE CEREMONY at Staples Center took place on an eight-foot high stage with a dramatic plan to introduce the players and assorted guests from below ground on a hydraulic platform that would eventually rise four feet higher than the main stage.

It was Staples’ executive Tim Harris’ job, however, to make sure the weight limit of 15 players, Jackson, Mitch Kupchak, Chick Hearn, the incoming and outgoing mayors of L.A. and Staples Center president Tim Leiweke did not exceed 6,500 pounds or the hydraulic platform would not work properly.

The problem, of course, was Leiweke.

After doing the math, Harris knew it would be close, so he called Leiweke, told him he could not lie, and asked him how much he weighed. Leiweke said, “220 pounds,” like Shaq weighs 220 pounds, and all Harris could do was ask Leiweke to skip breakfast.

Once it became apparent that Ron Harper had to skip the day’s events to return to Ohio to attend his ill mother, Staples officials lifted the eating ban on Leiweke.

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/ BOB STEINER, long-time publicist for Laker owner Jerry Buss, said Buss was on his way to Honolulu for a vacation while the players and coaches were preparing for the parade.

Steiner said he remembers Buss attending a City Hall celebration for the Lakers after their first title here, but he said he can’t remember Buss joining such festivities since then.

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/ TEAM L.A., the sports store at Staples, did $200,000 in business the day after the Lakers clinched.

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/ KOBE ACCEPTED an invite to dance for Shaq’s new music video: “It Takes Two,” but grabbed Tyronn Lue to join him, then stood with arms crossed, bobbing his head in approval of Lue’s footwork. When everyone danced on the stage later, Kobe played with a water gun.

Maybe we finally have found something he can’t do.

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/ SHAQ ARRIVED on his Harley-Davidson wearing a helmet a jockey might wear at Hollywood Park. Imagine the look on a horse if Shaq started to climb aboard.

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/ HEARN WAS brilliant as the master of ceremonies, telling the crowd he had walked out of the arena with Allen Iverson after the last game and noticed Iverson kept looking behind him.

“I asked, ‘What are you looking for?’ He said, ‘I’m trying to find out if Lue is still on my tail.’ ”

Later he told everyone about the difficulty Slava Medvedenko has had in learning English. Medvedenko took the microphone to say: “I love L.A.”

Hearn followed: “You’d better, you’ve got no place else to go.”

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com