Fox Apologizes, Not to Christie

A contrite Rick Fox, two days after his fight against Sacramento’s Doug Christie, returned to the Lakers for Sunday practice after a one-day absence.

And while the Laker forward was apologetic to his team and its fans, Fox still carried with him a sense of defiance toward the Kings in general and Christie in particular.

“It’s not anything that I condone,” Fox said of his actions in the melee. “I mean, I’m a father and a husband and I have kids that look up to me. It’s disappointing that for that moment I fell into the tactics of their attempt to be brave six months later.

“They came to win a championship in a preseason game. They should have thought about that a few months back, it’s a little late to get brave now. [Christie] made some statements about being scared in Game 7 [of the Western Conference finals] so I’m sure he was embarrassed of those statements and I’m sure his teammates have questions about his ability to perform. So he shaves his head, comes out and has something to prove.

“It’s just a situation where my emotions got hijacked and I regret responding the way I did.”

It was only 2:07 into the final exhibition for both teams, which had been trading barbs all summer after the Lakers won the emotionally charged playoff series, when Fox and Christie had their first dust-up, which included a lot of face time.

It included a Fox elbow near Christie’s face, Christie chucking the ball at Fox’s face, Fox pushing Christie away with an open hand to the face and Christie hitting Fox in the chin with a left punch.

After both players had been ejected and sent their separate ways, Fox, with his knowledge of the layout at Staples Center, sprinted through a back hallway and met Christie in the tunnel leading to the Kings’ locker room.

Fisticuffs ensued, as did the arrival of almost the entire roster of the Kings ( who had left their bench), Laker center Shaquille O’Neal (who seemed to be getting a head start on his career as a law-enforcement officer) and, according to several witnesses, Christie’s wife.

“I guess she thought he needed some help,” Fox said.

In reality, it was Fox who needed the lifeline supplied by O’Neal.

“It seemed like we were in Arco [Arena] for a second there, got dropped behind enemy lines and he came and got me,” Fox said.

The Lakers expect to hear from the league office today regarding fines and suspensions, and Laker Coach Phil Jackson, anticipating being without Fox for Tuesday night’s season opener against the San Antonio Spurs, was glad to have him at Sunday’s practice.

“It’s a bit of a distraction, but we do know that you have to make those kinds of adjustments all the way through the season,” Jackson said. “Unfortunately for us, it’s on opening night with the ring ceremony and all those other things that go along with it.

“He wanted to be here today and we wanted him to be here today. We wanted to look him in the face and see how he’s doing and hold his hand a little bit during this time.”

Fox wasn’t sure what a “fair” penalty would be.

“What is fair depends upon what precedent they want to set,” he said.

Jackson said he would wait until getting an official league ruling before establishing a starting lineup for Tuesday’s game, but he hinted that first-year Laker Tracy Murray could get the start at small forward with Fox’s inevitable suspension and Devean George hobbled by an ailing lower back.

“Tracy when he gets loose is a player that has a different rhythm than when he has to sit on the bench,” Jackson said. “Steve Smith’s the [San Antonio] starter, more than likely, and he’s a different type of player that Tracy might be able to stand on Steve Smith a little bit and pay attention to him. The two of them could be handcuffed together.”

The Lakers waived free-agent forward Guy Rucker, dropping their roster to 14 players.