Is the Lakers’ Age Still Golden, or Just Olden?

There are miniature championship trophies to Mitch Kupchak’s left, the rosters of 29 NBA teams to his right in the second-floor office of the gray building on Nash Street, El Segundo.

Behind and below him, the Lakers -- then 6-12, now 7-13 -- scrimmaged loudly, sneaker squeaks muffled by shouts for open jumpers, or missed ones.

Ultimately, Kupchak, the general manager, along with owner Jerry Buss and Coach Phil Jackson, will decide if the Lakers have become an aging, vulnerable team, or simply have started that way and remain capable of winning a fourth consecutive NBA title.

Question: What most concerns you about the season’s first five weeks?

Answer: Probably the record itself. There may be an illusion that you can rattle off eight or 10 wins in a row, but the fact remains, you have to win the first one. And then you have to win a second. When you lose, it normally brings out the worst in people, and we’ve lost more than we lost since this group has been together. It’s been a test and I can’t say we’ve passed the test with flying colors.

Q: Kobe Bryant’s contract extension, three years for nearly $55 million, is still out there. Why should he take that today?

A: It’s the most you can pay a player. As the home team, we have the ability to pay more than other teams, the difference between 12.5% and 10% [raises]. And we can do an additional year, seven years. If he played it out and chose to do something else, he could only get a six-year deal. As soon as we were able to do it, we did it. And it’s there for him. Just let us know.

We have a great relationship with his representative [Arn Tellem]. We have a great relationship with Kobe. This is where he’s indicated he wants to be. We have no reason to believe there’s anything else there, whether it’s anything we hear through the grapevine or, more importantly, what he or his agent tell us.

Q: Did this team pass its prime this summer?

A: It’s possible that that may have happened and that we may not be able to win a fourth championship. We’ll have to play the season to find out. However, our record -- 6-12 -- and I say this because Denver is in a rebuilding mode, they’ve got some nice, young players. But [four] days ago, Denver had a better record than we did. So, this team did not age so much over the summer that we’re not as good as a team that’s rebuilding. That much is clear. We are underachieving, and I think the group knows that.

Q: How seriously did you consider adding a veteran power forward to this team over the summer?

A: The power forwards that you’re talking about, a Charles Oakley type, we talked about him. But we also felt that with the group we have, while we don’t have one guy who jumps out at you, that’s where we have the most depth. Charles Oakley is not a backup center. He’s a power forward. I’m not so sure we had the ability to go out there and get whoever might be a premier power forward. The guys that you’re talking about, we talked to them all.

Q: When was your last conversation with Jerry West and what did you talk about?

A: I spoke to him from the Maui Classic on the day of the game [in Memphis]. I asked him to cut us some slack tonight. He laughed a little bit about it. I spoke to him about a week before that. I asked him how he was doing. He said he was struggling, because he was getting beat up twice a day. He said he’d watch their game, and at that point in time they had not won a game yet, and then he’d go home and watch our game, and we didn’t play well either. We joked about that. We talk more now than we did in the last two years.

Q: What do you miss the most about Chick Hearn?

A: This year, it’s been an adjustment-type year, with Jerry really being gone and now Chick is gone. And then at one point Earvin [Johnson] contemplated going to Seattle. I found myself sitting at my desk thinking something I never thought I’d be around to witness might be happening here. That was something I talked to Earvin about. You know, ‘Don’t do this to me. I’m not sure we can handle it, with you being gone also.’ A comment my wife made drove the whole thing home. A lot of times, she’d be in the house, games on the East Coast would come on at 4, 5 o’clock, a couple hours later on the West Coast. She’d put the TV on. A house with kids, what she does, that time of the night, with dinners, I’m running around trying to calm the kids down, but she’d have the TV on. She made the comment that just having Chick’s voice was comforting to know that, hey, there’s a Laker game on, there’s Chick again. She said to me how odd it was that that voice is not there anymore.

Q: Jerry Buss and Phil Jackson have said they have agreed to talk after the season regarding a contract extension for Jackson. How critical is Jackson’s long-term involvement here?

A: Phil and I have talked as well, in general. Without a doubt, I can’t tell you, No. 1, how easy it’s been to work with him. I think we have a great working relationship. No. 2, how happy I am, and the organization is, to have him here with this group. This is not an easy group to manage. I’m not sure how many other coaches could do it, although I’m sure a bunch would like to try. If he chose to leave, we’d have to find somebody. But that’s something I hope would not happen for some time to come. Although everybody doesn’t always get along down there, whether it’s a snap in the paper or a snap at practice, they have tremendous respect for each other. I would not like to take the chance that that might not be the same with another coach.