Bryant Finds Some Comfort

Kobe Bryant was asked if he was happy today.

It was late Thursday night. He’d played 32 minutes against the Clippers in an exhibition game, scored 15 points, made a few shots and missed a lot more. He was on his way to the garage at the Arrowhead Pond, where his motorcycle waited to take him home, presumably quickly.

“Am I happy today?” he repeated.

He shrugged.

“I guess you could say so,” he said, and then added, “under the circumstances.”

Bryant had arrived finally in a line of Lakers, behind Horace Grant and in front of Gary Payton, to a standing ovation from an arena speckled with golden eights.

The crowd came to Anaheim to see Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone and Payton, but it came early to see Bryant, on a basketball court and in public for the first time since he was charged nearly four months ago with felony sexual assault.

His wife, Vanessa, watched from a seat across from the Laker bench. Mike Tyson watched from two rows behind the scorer’s table. Bryant’s blue-suited bodyguards were plentiful.

Five days from the start of the regular season, three days after learning that his case would someday go to trial in Colorado, Bryant returned to the floor in an exhibition game against the Clippers. He played with some wispiness, his game having been pushed for now to the perimeter, as he no longer carries the bulk he did last year.

Still, it was basketball, good enough for now.

“It felt good just to be out there and play,” he said. “I enjoy playing the game. Nothing’s going to take away from that.”

It might have been a glorious moment for a Laker franchise that rebuilt swiftly and unexpectedly with free agents Malone and Payton, starting with Malone’s promise to play for far less than he would have been paid elsewhere, ending with Payton’s agreement to come along. But everything with the Lakers will be tempered in light of the charge that hangs above Bryant, above them all.

Then again ...

“It’s there, but I think this last week has changed a lot of people’s minds about what the outcome of this case will be,” said Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy.

Meanwhile, Phil Jackson is trying to build an offense around a near handful of 20-point scorers. He started Bryant in the backcourt with Payton, O’Neal at center, Malone at power forward, Devean George at small forward. Sometimes they looked sleek, four of them on the break or collapsing on the ball. Sometimes they stood and watched Quentin Richardson drive straight to the front of the rim.

Mostly, they tried to find a common game and a common pace, letting Bryant push his recovering right knee as far as it would stand, the rest of them somewhere between integrating Bryant and figuring it all out among themselves.

Bryant was four for 14 from the floor, the Lakers two for 14 from behind the three-point arc in a 107-101 loss. No Laker starter scored fewer than George’s 14 or more than O’Neal’s 18. Corey Maggette led the Clippers with 21 points, then suffered two chipped teeth and a lacerated nasal passage when he took an errant Malone forearm to the face.

Asked if he thought it was a clean play, Maggette said, “I didn’t think so.”

Malone shrugged. “Ain’t no free rides,” he said. “I didn’t feel him back there. I apologize if that was me.”

Payton wandered past. “That’s one victim,” he shouted. “Chalk it up.”

Malone left an impression on the Clippers. He also tangled with Clipper forward Bobby Simmons, a brief encounter that concluded with Simmons and Payton taking matching technical fouls.

“No problem,” Malone said. “I give and I take. You know what I liked? When I turned around I saw all four of my teammates right there.”

Bryant was cool and casual 45 minutes before the game, more himself in front of reporters than he’d been since last spring. He made eye contact, laughed, made a joke.

“I’m just excited to get out there on the floor and play with these guys,” he said. “There’ll be some kinks. But that’ll work itself out.”