Bryant to Get Extension Offer

The Lakers will offer Kobe Bryant a three-year, $54.8-million contract extension, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, after the season, and Bryant might not accept.

In the third year of a six-year extension that expires after the 2004-05 season, Bryant is due $40.5 million in the next three seasons.

Then, by the same process that brought teammate Shaquille O’Neal a three-year, $88.4-million extension 11/2 years ago, Bryant would be due $16.4 million, $18.3 million and $20.1 million through the 2007-08 season.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Bryant said Friday afternoon.

Including a final-year owners’ option almost certain to be exercised, the collective bargaining agreement expires after 2004-05, the same time as Bryant’s contract. Bryant voted against the agreement then and remains opposed to it.

Therefore, he could opt to sign a new free-agent contract under the next agreement, with the assumption that that agreement would be more player friendly, with a less restrictive salary-cap structure.

Given the economic climate of a sport on the verge of a payroll luxury tax, already garnishing parts of its players’ contracts for an escrow account, and having just agreed to a six-year, $4.6-billion television deal, Bryant, by waiting, also might risk a tighter cap.

While Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak refused to divulge whether he had already contacted Bryant’s representative, Arn Tellem, on the matter of the extension, he did say the offer “absolutely” would be made.

“Our intent would be to keep Kobe Bryant with us as long as possible,” Kupchak said, “however he chooses to go about it.”

The extension could amount to a three-year standing offer to Bryant, as he mulls the changes in the league and organization.

He will be 26 and just entering his basketball prime when his current contract is done, with at least two championships part of his resume. The Lakers could pay him more over a longer period if he chooses free agency, but that, again, is the rule under the current bargaining agreement. That, too, could change.

Also, Coach Phil Jackson has said that he “probably” would serve out his five-year contract and leave the team after the 2003-04 season. O’Neal has said that he would follow Jackson out of town, two years before his contract would end, and leave nearly $62 million on the table.

Both could change their minds, O’Neal especially, a scenario Bryant presumably would find attractive. His relationships with both appear to have grown.

In even his most difficult times, when he feuded with Jackson and O’Neal, Bryant insisted that he wanted to spend his career as a Laker. His ambivalence regarding the contract extension would appear to be a business decision, rather than a basketball or personal one.

Indeed, he would have personal reasons to stay. Despite spending five years in suburban Philadelphia after moving from Italy, Bryant has ties in the Southland. His wife, Vanessa, and her family are rooted in Orange County.

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O’Neal continues to make headway with his ailing feet. After playing the season’s first three months in size-22 shoes, O’Neal asked his company--Starter--to make them a size larger. The roomier 23s allow him to wrap his arthritic big toe. As a result, he said, he’s feeling less pain.... After sitting out against the Clippers because of a sore right hamstring, Robert Horry returned Friday against the San Antonio Spurs.

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Tim Brown