Star Tour Keeps Its Act on Road

In eight exhibition games, the Lakers will have traipsed through Bakersfield, through the Midwest, to here and beyond, spreading the word of the NBA and their own golden jerseys, Laker Girls in tow.

They travel like the superstars they most certainly are, playing in the early evening, chartering jets from tiny airports at midnight, media herd gaining on them by commercial flights the next morning.

Two Fridays ago was Derek Fisher Day in Little Rock, because there are few finer citizens than Derek Fisher, and because he brought pals Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to their town, their hotel, their streets.

By the next morning, the Lakers were gone and the loiterers in the lobby gawked not at the fleeing Phil Jackson, but at four obedient ducks, whose exit from an indoor fountain left tiny dark footprints on a red carpet.

In Boston and New York and San Antonio, the Lakers are glamorous, three-time champions and sexier than the local teams, but sightings of them in NBA strongholds are routine. In Oklahoma City and San Diego, they are demigods rushed through lines of security guards, rushed away by the local luxury bus company.

Rick Fox touches their hands and Brian Shaw laughs with their jokes and Bryant tries to leave them with at least one dunk that will have them talking at the Dairy Queen the next day. Most nights, O’Neal, in civilian clothes, follows the Lakers to the floor by five minutes, and the walls of the arena nearly crinkle with the gasp.

In a sweltering nightclub Friday night at the Palms, the hotel owned by the men who own the Sacramento Kings, O’Neal stood in a club named Rain, pulled a microphone to his face and rapped at the people below. Witnesses said he disparaged the Kings, but that’s not new.

Asked to list the benefits of such places, Jackson at first was typically blunt.

“Absolutely none,” he said. “Well, the benefit is you get to play in front of an audience with NBA referees and test the players in certain situations.

“There are some things that are refreshing about it. But, all in all, the travel is much more difficult. Things are much more cumbersome. However, it’s part and parcel to what we do.”

The Laker rank and file make the best of these towns, and management and players profit, both financially and in the manner of public relations.

In a meeting this week, Jeanie Buss, Laker vice president of business operations, told the players that the preseason accounts for about 4% of the team’s revenue, apparently putting it in the same neighborhood as postseason revenue. The Lakers sell out, or come close to it, in all eight games, all considered home games for them, though Saturday’s game against the Phoenix Suns was an exception: Huge blocks of seats in the lower bowl of Thomas & Mack Center were empty.

“The Dallas Cowboys were America’s football team,” Buss said. “In a way, the Atlanta Braves were America’s baseball team because of the exposure they got. So, I like to think of the Lakers as America’s NBA team. The way to expose our brand is to take it across America.”

The Chicago Bulls had the same strategy in the height of the Michael Jordan era.

So they go, to Memphis and New Orleans two years ago, and two games in Honolulu last year, after games in Japan were canceled. Buss chases new, big arenas in non-NBA territories, rents the facilities and brings the Lakers. She also occasionally sends players ahead to market the game. Fisher was in Little Rock, promoting, about a month before the Lakers played there.

“We’re not like the old-time promoters, who got out of town just ahead of the angry mob,” Buss said. “We feel we invest back into the community.”

Said Fox: “We’re broadening our appeal, expanding our fan base.”

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The Lakers lost to the Suns, 90-84. Bryant had 23 points as the Lakers’ exhibition record fell to 2-3. Mike Tyson watched from a front-row seat, but the game lacked the excitement (and the crowd) of recent years, when the Lakers played the Kings here.... Shaw (groin) did not dress. Robert Horry, who did not play Thursday in Anaheim because of tendinitis in his right knee, started against the Suns.