This Time, Chief Hails Lakers

Mark Madsen took two large steps toward the President of the United States, toward White House immortality, before changing his mind.

President Bush on Monday morning had asked him to reprise the unwieldy dance that celebrated the Lakers’ NBA championship in June, and Madsen appeared to accept.

“I’m ready,” said Madsen, a huge grin on his face, as he started away from his teammates along a gold curtain in the East Room. “Let’s go.”

Alas, Madsen reconsidered, and let lie Al Gore’s legacy for motor grace.

At the podium, Bush looked over his left shoulder and said, “Actually, I just said I was hoping. I’m afraid the Secret Service might react violently if you did.”

On a mild morning that smelled of spring though the White House trees were bare and its front lawn yellow, the Lakers took one more lap around the 2000-01 season and their repeated NBA title. They toured the White House and then stood behind Bush as he greeted them with a short speech on his way to a meeting with Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s interim leader.

Outside, across Pennsylvania Avenue, a handful of demonstrators stirred beneath their sleeping bags. They surrounded a large yellow sign with thick black letters intended for Bush: “Live by the bomb, die by the bomb”--a day after the Lakers missed 14 of 17 three-pointers and lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 93-87.

Kobe Bryant presented Bush with a Laker jersey and Shaquille O’Neal followed with a basketball, signed by the team. Coach Phil Jackson, who campaigned for Bill Bradley in the last Democratic presidential primary race, introduced the players to Bush.

“Mr. President, it was an honor to have been here when your father was here, to have been able to present a team at that time, as it is this time,” Jackson said. “I want to say that this group showed the country and NBA basketball how to work together as a group. And I only hope that you and the Congress can do as much.”

Bush addressed a small gathering that sat in gold-backed chairs. Included in the group were six members of Congress from California, Laker executives Jeanie and Jim Buss, two dozen children from nearby Boys and Girls Clubs, and Laker assistant Tex Winter.

Winter was hospitalized in Philadelphia briefly Sunday because of an adverse reaction to spicy food, but rejoined the team that night.

“You can’t stop him,” assistant Frank Hamblen said of the resilient Winter, who will be 80 next month. “You can only hope to contain him.”

It was Hamblen, apparently, who suggested Winter sample the hot sauce with a postgame meal.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, Laker commentators Stu Lantz and Paul Sunderland, the coaching staff and the team’s decent-sized traveling party also attended.

“Being champs on the court means you’ve got to be champs off the court as well,” Bush told them. “I know these players understand that every time they do something, some kid is watching. Every time they say something, some kid is listening. I want to thank the players who understand that with victory comes a huge responsibility to encourage people to make the right choices in life. To me, that’s the true sign of a champ.”

Bush then looked to the Buss children.

“I also want to thank the L.A. Lakers for being involved in your community,” he said. “People ask me all the time after the attack of 9-11, ‘What can I do to help? How can I participate in the war against terror?’ And the answer is, you fight evil with acts of decency and kindness. You fight evil by doing something good. You fight evil by teaching a child that somebody loves them. You fight evil by being an L.A. Laker that convinces somebody to be a mentor for some child in inner-city Los Angeles who wonders whether there’s any love or hope in the world. That’s how you fight evil.”