Malone, Payton feted into the pack

Basketball star Karl Malone, dressed in black silk and sandals that revealed black-painted toenails, towered over a pack of adoring TV reporters and offered his best Shaquille O’Neal impersonation. He kept his answers terse and low and occasionally lifted an eyebrow for emphasis.

The command performance was a hit, and Malone’s point was made. “I bring an attitude and I come here on a mission,” he said. “They brought me in to do a job.” And that, by the way, is to win a championship.

On Thursday night, the Lakers feted their two newest players -- Malone, a former Utah Jazz forward, and Gary Payton, a former Seattle SuperSonics point guard -- both of whom signed last week, taking enormous pay cuts to create what fans consider a sort of dream team. The party at Lucky Strikes, a bowling alley and bar in the Hollywood & Highland complex, also celebrated their birthdays, which are a day apart.

Outside the club, southbound traffic along Highland Avenue slowed to a crawl as tourists and Laker fans spotted Malone on the purple carpet.

“Welcome to L.A., baby!” shouted one man from a truck. From a car right behind him, another man shouted, “Free Kobe! Free Kobe!”

Inevitably, Malone was pressed by reporters to discuss Kobe Bryant’s sexual assault case, and he gamely offered his unwavering support. “To me, you look at a situation like this and Kobe’s the victim,” he said. “He needs people to be pulling for him. And I’m right behind him.”

While general manager Mitch Kupchak waved away reporters, assistant coach Kurt Rambis said the team is “standing by Kobe.” But Rambis wouldn’t speculate on how the controversy might affect the team’s focus. “You’re talking about all hypotheticals,” he told one reporter. “We’re just going to deal with the situation as it is.”

Of Bryant’s case, Lakers announcer Stu Lantz said: “Blown away is how I feel about this whole thing, like all of us.”

Later, inside the club, fans and friends ate hamburgers and fries, bowled a few halfhearted games with glow-in-the-dark balls and watched footage on giant screens of winning plays from seasons past. When Payton finally arrived, he made his first stop at the table of the team’s trainer, Gary Vitti, to reassure him that he’s “low maintenance.” Malone, meanwhile, exhaled cigar smoke over the party.

There was talk of the enormous “sacrifice” both players made to come to Los Angeles. (Malone took a pay cut of about $16 million, and Payton $2 million.) And everyone kept half an eye on the door, just in case one of the team’s big guns showed. But Bryant, O’Neal, Phil Jackson, Rick Fox and others stayed away.

A faithful few celebrities did show up, however. There was Penny Marshall (“No questions about Kobe”) hugging everyone over 6-foot-4, and pop star Brandy, who had accompanied Bryant to his high school prom. David Arquette wore a Lakers warmup suit emblazoned with Bryant’s number.

“I’m just supporting him and his family,” Arquette said of his wardrobe. “It’s a tremendous amount of pressure in the public eye, going through something like this.”