Lakers Keep Balancing Bryant, Basketball

Laker players and coaches boarded the bus on the cobbled drive of their team hotel here Thursday morning at about the time Kobe Bryant passed through a metal detector at a courthouse in Eagle, Colo.

Because of the rigors and schedule of his legal entanglement, Bryant would miss his second charter flight with his teammates in eight days. The Lakers flew again without him, the morning after they played again without him, and Karl Malone said he would spend the long trip home thinking about Bryant.

“If there’s one person who’s not,” Malone said, “I’d be disappointed.”

Since July, the Lakers have tried to balance Bryant’s arrest and the felony sexual assault charge against him with building a basketball team and preparing it for the NBA season. He returned to them appearing emotionally and physically frail, spent a week trying to gain on both, then was pulled back to his attorney’s side for Thursday’s hearing.

The Lakers open their season in 2 1/2 weeks, and their lineup of four potential Hall of Famers has been reduced temporarily, at least, to three. They split two exhibition games against the Golden State Warriors here and did not practice Thursday but will return to practice in El Segundo through the weekend, presumably with Bryant again among them. They next play Tuesday night in San Diego, though it is unknown whether Bryant will play, or for how long.

Despite the schedule and Bryant’s clear need to bring his body back from a sedentary summer, Jackson said, he did not yet fear a negative impact on the team.

“We’ve all kind of put that in a safe zone,” Jackson said of Bryant’s off-court troubles. “That’s a safe spot over here. We’re going to let that play out as it has to play itself out. Kobe comes back to us, then he’ll join the team again, then he’s a team member and we can go forward from there.”

On the floor, some of camp’s critical issues are being resolved without Bryant. Malone and Gary Payton are familiarizing themselves with the intricacies of Jackson’s complex triangle offense, with Tuesday night’s success against the Warriors tempered by Wednesday night’s washout. Also, Shaquille O’Neal, between contract demands -- he walked the hallways outside the team locker room on Wednesday night shouting, “Show me the money!” -- appears motivated and light on his feet. Last year he missed the entire preseason and the first 12 regular-season games because of foot surgery.

While Jackson hopes guards Payton and Bryant get enough mutual floor time to learn each other’s habits, particularly defensively, he trusts Bryant will warm to it quickly.

“Kobe won’t fall behind,” he said. “He knows what we’re doing. He’s on cue. His basketball is relatively close. The only thing I would think is there are some situations I wouldn’t want him in right now, just because of the conditioning and the strength he’s at. He could put himself in harm’s way. But his timing’s going to be back in 45 minutes of practicing with the players, and what we do he’s going to be able to put together with his teammates in short order. The teamwork, the aspect of how to use each other’s strengths and a significant part of how he’s going to tandem play with Gary Payton, those things are going to take some time. It could take a month of the season for us to get together. But that’s expected regardless of training camp.”

Malone, whose home in Newport Beach “is about 10 seconds as the crow flies, that’s a country term,” from Bryant’s, said he expected to see or talk to Bryant Thursday night, after the preliminary hearing, and Payton expected to call Bryant earlier in the day.

“Everybody’s going to call him,” Payton said. “I’m going to call him, Karl’s going to call him, we’re going to wish him good luck. You’ve got to have faith.”

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A night after playing well against the Warriors and making a big show of his wishes to extend his contract, O’Neal played unevenly Wednesday, missed eight of 11 shots, then left the arena without speaking to reporters.