Their Day on Court

And so whatever it is to be begins.

For the Lakers, it was so recently the best of times. Now for one of them, it’s the worst of times, and for everyone else, the weirdest of times as NBA camps open this week.

This is usually the happiest time of year, filled with optimistic projections, however delusional some may be. The New York Knicks will say they’re contenders. The Portland Trail Blazers will say they’ve reformed. Clipper players who signed offer sheets with other teams and were reeled back in will say they’re happy to be back.

Not that there could be any confusion about the actual balance of power, which still has the Lakers on one hand and everyone else on the other.

Recent NBA seasons have been all about Laker triumphs and soap operas. The only thing worse than their domination was not having them around after last spring’s pratfall, with Finals TV ratings, which had fallen 40% since the halcyon 1990s, dropping 40% for the San Antonio-New Jersey series.

So it was to be again, only more so. Fear and loathing hit new heights as Karl Malone and Gary Payton signed up to form -- on paper -- the greatest starting lineup in the game’s history.

“You always try to keep up with the Joneses and try to win in this league,” said New Jersey assistant coach Lawrence Frank, “but it’s hard to keep up with that.”

That, however, was before Kobe Bryant’s arrest on a sexual assault charge, which added something new and dire to the mix. No one is sure how things will play out, except that whatever happens, it’ll be big.

Normally, a small local press corps accompanies the Lakers to Hawaii, with national outlets picking them up when they return to the mainland, saving the cost of a tropical boondoggle with the baseball playoffs and the NFL and college football crowding everything else out, anyway.

This season, a press corps approaching 100 is en route to Honolulu, including crews from CNN, Fox Sports, NBC News and the syndicated shows “Extra” and “Inside Edition.”

They’re the ones the Lakers know about. Yet to surface are such wild cards as “Celebrity Justice” and the National Enquirer, whose woman in Eagle, Colo., was tape-recorded offering $12,500 for the story of one of the complainant’s girlfriends.

Laker press policy, formulated with league officials, is not to credential the nontraditional outlets, such as supermarket tabloids. Of course, with so many other news organizations suing for access, more legal action is possible.

Bryant says he intends to speak as he normally would -- probably starting when the veterans report Friday -- but won’t discuss his case or personal issues. The team says Coach Phil Jackson and the players will follow the same guidelines.

This represents the Lakers’ desire to protect Bryant and themselves. Whether that, or anything, works, of course, is the question.

Jackson is familiar with problems like these, having managed to keep everyone chilled out amid the chaos in Chicago when Michael Jordan was like one of the Beatles and Dennis Rodman put on wedding dresses. Of course, not even the What, Me Worry? Kid ever faced a distraction of this magnitude.

Jackson likes to quote

Rudyard Kipling -- “The strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack” -- to suggest the team’s role in nurturing its members, even men as peculiar as Jordan and Rodman.

“Kobe’s always been that lobo,” Jackson says. “He’s come in and been part of this team at various times during the course of his career, but it’s never been entirely. Now, it’s [going to be] kind of like an identification, as to how much he’s going to rely on his team at this point.”

This year, the psychodrama comes first. How is this situation affecting Bryant’s life, his head and, oh yes, his game and their season?

Sports coverage is the original reality programming. It’s dramatic, seems important and, unlike the news, which is about life as opposed to games, there are no serious consequences for losing, such as getting locked up.

This is the season when the NBA crosses over, with more reality than anyone bargained for.

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Officially, at least, the story won’t overshadow this season.

“I think our fans understand that allegations get made and trials get held,” Commissioner David Stern said a few days ago in his Manhattan office. “I don’t think they will have a significant impact on the season.

“Obviously, it would be better if the allegations hadn’t been made and the court appearances and trials weren’t scheduled. I can’t say it focuses people on basketball in a constructive way, but I think the overwhelming activity of the summer is the focus on Cleveland and LeBron James, on qualifying for the Olympics, on Denver and its turnaround, on the signings the Lakers have done. There’s very much a basketball buzz that’s still about.”

Indeed, James should have an unprecedented impact for a rookie. The Nets hope to get back to the Finals with Alonzo Mourning, assuming they get off to a fast start so Jason Kidd doesn’t try to unseat Coach Byron Scott again. Larry Brown is in Detroit with Rick Carlisle’s old team and Carlisle is in Indiana with Isiah Thomas’ old team. Minnesota, with Latrell Sprewell, Sam Cassell and Michael Olowokandi, may climb into the elite ranks and had better, if it wants to keep the ultimate free agent, Kevin Garnett, off the market. The Sacramento Kings made their annual adroit move, sending away Scot Pollard for Brad Miller. The Spurs added Rasho Nesterovic and Hedo Turkoglu, so it wasn’t the summer of their dreams, but they’re still defending champions, officially.

Unfortunately for all concerned, the Bryant thing is more of a din than a buzz.

Stern’s office overlooks the spires atop St. Patrick’s Cathedral, offering a larger view, not to mention a more prayerful one. The Bryant case is beyond his control. It may not come to trial until after the season and when it does, Kobe may be found not guilty.

In the meantime, Stern discusses it as rarely as he can. In the league office, it’s like having an elephant in the room -- everyone knows it’s there, but no one wants to admit it.

Nevertheless, with saturation coverage, everyone is asked his opinion, regardless of expertise or taste. Thus, madcap Dallas owner Mark Cuban set off another of his tempests in a teapot, predicting the Bryant story would spike Laker and league TV ratings, because people like “train-wreck television.”

This seemed possible on its face. Nevertheless, it prompted a spirited denial by Stern, who is too dismayed by the pall the story casts over his season and his former marketing icon to care about a few ratings points, one way or the other.

Nor was that the end of it. Cuban was then told off by ESPN’s Dan Patrick in an on-air exchange:

Patrick: “If sexual assault or rape is involved in a conversation, I don’t know anything great that can come out of it.”

Cuban: “If you ever watch any of the financial news environment, they say, ‘Well, we have a war in Iraq. Which stocks are going to benefit?’ How do you feel about that?”

Patrick: “I’m not on board with that either.”

If Patrick’s outrage seemed contrived -- he was just back on the nightly “SportsCenter,” amid heavy promotion -- that’s also part of saturation coverage.

There was a merciful lull as the California recall story took off, but Bryant is due back in court two days after the election -- more highlights of Kobe and his lawyers getting out of their van! -- and the season will follow, cranking the story up anew.

If the season shrinks in importance, it is what it is, in the Lakers’ operative phrase of the moment. They’ll take it as it comes, starting in Hawaii, which was their own little slice of heaven before the paparazzi landed.

For people who run low on angles, the Golden State Warriors will also be there. Laker publicist John Black jokes about rehiring Ray Ritter, his opposite number on the Warriors and once Black’s assistant, to help with the media surge.

Says Black, “The three people who are there for the Warriors can take care of themselves.”