Jackson Nears New Deal

Phil Jackson and the Lakers are expected to complete a two-year contract extension worth perhaps $16 million, before bonuses, in the coming week.

Jackson’s initial contract -- $30 million over five years and another $2 million per championship in bonuses -- runs through the coming season. He spent much of the summer at his home in Montana, deciding early on that he was healthy enough and properly motivated to sign on at least through the 2005-06 season, and returned to Los Angeles a week ago with the intention of lengthening his stay with the Lakers.

Team owner Jerry Buss, who is expected to return from his summer-long stay in Europe on Tuesday, and Jackson probably will meet again next week and may complete the deal then. Jackson plans to return to Montana shortly thereafter, then return before training camp begins in late September.

Though he contemplated retirement through parts of last season because of fatigue and discomfort, Jackson successfully passed kidney stones, then underwent a late-season angioplasty, and soon after found his energy restored.

Jackson, who will be 58 next month, was involved in the recruiting of free agents Gary Payton and Karl Malone, even as he traveled by motorcycle from Los Angeles to North Dakota for his 40th high school reunion. Both players said Jackson had told them he intended to coach beyond the coming season.

The Lakers won NBA championships in Jackson’s first three seasons as coach. He coached six champions in Chicago, for nine overall, one shy of Red Auerbach’s record with the Boston Celtics.

Jackson’s fifth year in Los Angeles could prove his most demanding, even against the backdrop of last season’s key injuries, health issues and eventual elimination in the second round of the playoffs.

While General Manager Mitch Kupchak rebuilt the roster with Malone and Payton, and while Shaquille O’Neal went off to Orlando to reclaim his body, Kobe Bryant was accused in July of sexual assault. The charges have brought massive media attention and speculation to Bryant and the organization, and the scrutiny is expected to build through the season, as Bryant plays toward his trial date, which has not been set.

He is scheduled to appear in a Colorado court for a preliminary hearing Oct. 9, and again within about a month of that for his arraignment. The season starts Oct. 28 -- he will play in Denver for the first time on Jan. 7 -- and the regular season concludes April 14.

Asked Thursday if he could make contingency plans to protect the team against Bryant’s schedule -- speculation has Bryant’s trial starting anywhere from March to July -- Kupchak said he had simply assembled the roster the best he could.

“Going into every season, we like to have what we consider to be sufficient depth at every position for various reasons,” he said. “We feel we have a good balance to our roster.”

Jackson’s extension would lend stability to a roster that could turn over substantially after the season, beginning with Bryant, Payton and Malone.

Before his arrest, Bryant had said he would opt out of his contract after the 2003-04 season and try free agency, in the face of a three-year, $54.8-million extension offer from the Lakers that has been on the table for more than a year. During the playoffs, Bryant said the status of the organization’s coach -- be it Jackson or another -- would not influence his decision.

Payton and Malone signed two-year contracts but each can leave after one year, at his option.

O’Neal, who once insisted he would leave the Lakers when Jackson did, has softened on the position and is eligible for a three-year, $121.5-million extension in October. Negotiations will begin in the next month. O’Neal is under contract for three more seasons, and can opt out in two.

Bryant, Payton, Malone and free-agent-to-be Derek Fisher -- four-fifths of the Lakers’ starting lineup if Jackson makes Bryant his small forward -- could leave after this season, though Jackson’s long-term commitment could deter the exodus.