Jackson Brushes Off Practice for Bonding

BELLOWS AIR FORCE STATION, Oahu, Hawaii -- On another muggy morning in Waikiki, Kobe Bryant among them finally, Shaquille O’Neal healing, Karl Malone and Gary Payton beginning to learn, the Lakers were taken away from their resort hotel, away from their practice gym and, Phil Jackson hoped, a bit closer to team unity.

The chaotic early days of training camp showing signs of giving way to basketball, Jackson on Sunday morning had his unsuspecting players bused over the mountain range that cups Honolulu, across the southeastern corner of Oahu, to a military base 40 minutes away that grows from sandy white beaches and Listerine-colored ocean. While they wondered what kind of practice this might be, the players were issued padded uniforms and guns, then led to a field of flags and obstacles, where they played paintball, rigorously.

In a signature Jackson affair, four teams of five, captained by Bryant, O’Neal, Malone and Payton, waged faux battles. In a nearby bleacher, Jackson and his coaches observed, as did a handful of bemused military officials. When one player had come to trainers for a third time about a painful but harmless welt that had risen on his arm, a Navy SEAL standing nearby, disgusted, clipped, “What about the suck-it-up factor? Sheesh.”

Two hours later, chewing on ribs and fried chicken, mingling with troops who had recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, Laker players laughed often and easily. Some were splattered with yellow paint that had leaked through personalized paintball jerseys, and they rubbed body parts that had taken the brunt of a speeding glob of paint.

“We want them to have some occasions to be together in situations that aren’t all basketball, and still let them grow a little bit as a group, so they can absorb the amount of energy people have,” Jackson said. “Gary Payton’s got a big mouth. They’re learning that about him. He’s a heckler. He gets after people. Horace Grant ... is a fun guy to have as one of those guys who gets heckled. Karl is dangerous on the rookies. They’re watching their step around him, because they’ll be sent for a shaved ice, water, chicken, whatever he wants. So, there’s some things the group is learning about each other’s behavior that’s important for team building.”

Malone, after 18 years in Utah, had come to the Lakers for a chance at an NBA championship, for a fresh start at 41, for time on the floor with O’Neal and Bryant. So far, he’s got paint in his shorts.

“In 30 years, I’ve never in my life experienced anything like this,” he said, grinning. “It’s always ... camp starts, go to work. Camp starts, go to work. That’s what you’re getting paid for. To break it up and do this ... I don’t know what to say.

“I’ll keep this in the back of my mind for the rest of my life. My first year with the Lakers, and first training camp ever, to do something like this. I want to go back to practice now.”

O’Neal, whose bruised heel had kept him out of practices Friday and Saturday, was largely a stationary paintballer, what Jackson called “a sentinel and sniper.”

“He didn’t move much today in this activity,” he said. “He stayed behind the barricades. He’s a big target out there, so he stayed behind them.”

Bryant, who seemed to smile easier a day after addressing the media for the first time since early summer, remembered O’Neal’s role differently.

“Shaq was way in the back,” he said, “eating a Slushee or something.”

Over the years, many of them championship seasons, Jackson has deftly pulled his team out of the grind of the basketball, and allowed it some distraction. Practices have been replaced by ferry rides, movies and field trips. A few laughs have substituted for lessons of the triangle and, this time, the timing could not have been more beneficial. Jackson and Chip Schaefer, the club’s athletic performance coordinator, planned the outing in August, so they could not have known how important a day away would be.

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O’Neal increased his practice participation Sunday, and the Lakers hoped he’d be able to participate fully today. Bryant spent Sunday’s practice getting treatment on his surgically repaired right knee. The club will practice twice today, play the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, then return to the mainland Thursday. Bryant will not play in the first two exhibition games, the club said.