This Laker Media Day Has a Surreal Feel to It

Yearning to restore the life he has lost, at least for the moment, Kobe Bryant flew home from Eagle, Colo., where prosecutors had just presented evidence purporting to show he raped a 19-year-old woman, and attended Friday’s Laker media day, where he confined his comments to the basketball season.

“I got to come to work, right?” said Bryant, determinedly trying to keep the tone light. “No big deal....

“There’s really not much to get used to. [Commuting from Colorado] is what it is.... I go out, take care of business and come back, take care of business here.”

Actually, it’s a big enough deal, from which his future and all Laker concerns now flow. Although team officials declined direct comment too, Laker sources say Wednesday’s court proceedings didn’t change their comfort level with the idea of Bryant’s playing this season.

“We don’t really want to discuss [Bryant’s case] today,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

“Today’s a day we want to let it go away and dissipate and the energy kind of dissolve around it. Because there’s a feeding frenzy [which] can keep escalating. We want it to ebb. We want it to slow down and we want him to come back and play basketball.”

With the atmosphere tense, the Lakers took the unprecedented step of thinning the crowd by barring some media representatives from media day, among them several reporters from local newspapers, insisting the event was primarily for the team’s broadcast partners and affiliates to record promos.

Thus, less than 24 hours after Bryant had sat in a courtroom in Eagle, he stood in front of a Fox TV camera, in uniform with his trademark smile, reading from cue cards that said, “Lakers basketball is coming up next,” and “You best get out of our way because we’re coming after you,” and, “Paul and Stu, back to you.”

Because Bryant’s preliminary hearing was continued, he must be back in Eagle on Wednesday morning, so any thought that he might play, for the first time this season, in Tuesday’s exhibition against the Phoenix Suns in San Diego has now gone by the boards.

Bryant said his surgically repaired knee wouldn’t have let him play Tuesday against Golden State in any case -- “I heal quickly, but I don’t heal that quickly.” -- but he hopes to get in at least two exhibitions, suggesting he might not play before the Oct. 23 game against the Clippers in the Arrowhead Pond.

For his part, Jackson says he’s hoping Bryant can play in Thursday’s game against Cleveland at Staples Center.

Of course, like everything else, that’s pending developments.

Beyond that, Jackson is waiting for the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, the arraignment and the setting of a trial date, hoping things will then settle down so the press can turn to more pressing stories, such as, say, Iraq.

“It’s something I’d like to address,” Jackson said. “We have a world that’s filled with a lot of things. People are dying in Baghdad and Iraq and situations around the world are much more disastrous and dangerous and the focus of the media, to spend so much energy on [Bryant’s case] just throws me into a loop sometimes.

“There are a lot of things politically that we could talk about, there are issues that could be dealt with and energy could be spent on that, rather than celebrity chasing that is really crazy, really insane. And I think we’ve got to kind of shape it up in this country.... “

Not surprisingly, Laker players said they remained supportive of Bryant and declined comment on the news from Eagle, of which they said they had seen only bits and pieces.

“I didn’t hear about it,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “I don’t really watch that stuff on TV. I have five kids, so I never really have a chance to get to it. I’m still watching ‘SpongeBob’ and Nickelodeon....

“I never believe what I hear on TV, anyway. I’ve been saying all the time that I have faith in the justice system. I’m not the kind to speculate. I’m just not going to mention it and not think about it and not worry about it....

“This has to be a place where [Bryant] can come lay down and get some comfort. I’m sure it’s very difficult handling it. It’s my job and the other guys’ job, when he comes here, he gets two-three hours relaxation, laugh and giggle a little bit.

“And that’s what I’m going to do for him. I’m going to be his pillow, his comforter.”

For his part, when questions turned to the case, Bryant said, “I’m not really here to talk about the hearings. Anybody got any questions about the basketball season and my teammates, I’ll be more than happy to answer those.”

After that, it was just the comforting chitchat of his old life, when basketball seemed so important.

Bryant said he wasn’t thinking about breaking the Bulls’ record of 73 wins (“Whoa!”), looked forward to playing alongside Gary Payton (“We spend most of our time talking about the defense; we both get pretty excited about the thought of harassing our opposition,”) and hoped to be on the floor soon (“I’m training, I’m busting my butt to really get to 100%. When I do, I’ll get out on the floor and complete the puzzle.”)

For a moment, it was just like the old days. But only for a moment.