Malone, Payton Still in Demand

Gary Payton will be back in town Tuesday, Karl Malone about the same time. Presumably, they’ll have contracts to consider, a few hours to find a place with an ocean view, maybe get over to the ESPY’s.

In the meantime, days after Payton and Malone announced with some conviction they intended to play next season for the Lakers, their agents have received numerous telephone calls from Western Conference general managers, hoping to lure the players away from their commitments to cut-rate deals in Los Angeles.

“Absolutely,” Aaron Goodwin, Payton’s agent, said Saturday. “From everywhere.”

Goodwin and Malone’s agent, Dwight Manley, figure to meet over the coming days with Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Barring sign-and-trade scenarios with the players’ former teams, the negotiations probably will conclude with Payton taking the Lakers’ mid-level exception for next season, with an option for 2004-05. The Lakers probably would defer to Payton, giving him the choice of a long-term deal if he wanted it. Malone has told the organization he would take its $1.5-million exception.

Still, nothing is binding until Wednesday, and opposing general managers apparently won’t stop trying.

“It’s not going to die down until he signs the contract,” Goodwin said. “They want to test him. Other teams still want him. They want to see if he’ll really go to L.A. for less. It’s America, this is a business and they have a right to try.

“There’s still activity. I told a couple of teams, ‘If you want to submit something, submit it. It’s my job to put it in front of Gary. But you’re not going to change his mind.’ All they’re doing is upping the numbers.”

Neither player has suggested he could be talked out of his decision to come to Los Angeles, choices that cost them millions.

“People are different,” Goodwin said. “But my word is my word. It’s etched in stone. I can tell you that Gary and myself, we’re not going to go back on our word.”

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Shaquille O’Neal, in Saturday’s New York Times, on the Laker additions and what it means in the West: “Last year, I had a couple tanks, a couple grenades. Now I got atomic weapons. I’m going nuclear. I’m Colin Powell, and I can drop the bomb any time I want to.

“I’m not going to talk about Sacramento, because I’ve been hard on them in the past. But San Antonio’s window is shut. That’s right, the Diesel is back.

“Hey, they had a great year. It was their turn. Congratulations. That’s all right. ‘Cause they don’t got two 7-footers anymore.”

David Robinson retired at the end of the season, leaving Tim Duncan without a true center.