Is Their Rivalry Still a Chief Concern?

Phil Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy meet again, going on five years after Jackson interviewed for Van Gundy’s job, creating a memorable uproar during the playoffs for both the coach and his team, the New York Knicks.

It was Van Gundy, as coach of the Knicks, who first called Jackson “Big Chief Triangle” and Van Gundy who admitted to being obsessed with beating Jackson’s almighty Chicago Bulls in the late ‘90s.

But the event that linked them in recent New York basketball history came during the second round of the 1999 playoffs, when the New York Times broke the story that Jackson had met that week with Dave Checketts, then president of the Knicks, at a Manhattan hotel. The reason for the meeting: to talk about Jackson’s replacing Van Gundy as coach of the Knicks.

Van Gundy was without a guaranteed contract for 1999-2000 and at that moment was trying to beat the Atlanta Hawks in a series that, according to the New York papers, had the potential to save his job.

Van Gundy and the Knicks won that series in a sweep and then won another, advancing to the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, and the Knicks rewarded Van Gundy with a contract extension.

A couple of months later, Jackson came out of retirement to coach the Lakers.

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Gary Payton and Karl Malone arrived in tandem in July, and apparently they will remain so this summer.

Payton said Friday that wherever he plays next season, it probably will be beside Malone. Both can opt out of their contracts after this season.

“Whatever he does in his career from now on, I think I’m going to be right there with him,” Payton said. “If he’s going to come back to the Lakers, I think I’m going to come back to the Lakers too. If he’s going to go somewhere else, I’m going to consider going somewhere else with him. So, just whatever he wants.”

They plan to spend time this summer at Malone’s Arkansas logging ranch, where they will, according to Payton, work out and smoke cigars on the porch.

“He’s going to have me knocking down trees and all that log stuff, so I got to get ready for that.”

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Pretrial hearings in Kobe Bryant’s felony sexual assault case are scheduled for April 26-28 in Eagle, Colo., which could conflict with Game 5.

If necessary, the fifth game is scheduled for April 28, though game time has not been established. Presumably, the Lakers would practice April 26 and 27.

Twice this season Bryant has returned from hearings in time to play, once at the end of the first quarter and once in plenty of time to start the game.

Jackson said he had discussed the scheduling possibilities with Bryant, which are numerous.

The fear, he said, was that “it could be an earlier game if they got involved in broadcasting it to the East Coast.”

Laker officials have not contacted the league regarding the start time for Game 5. Said team spokesman John Black: “We’ll discuss it internally and make a decision as to whether it’s appropriate or not.”

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Derek Fisher, on Bryant’s season while dealing with the rape accusation: “I’d like to give him -- which he already knows -- but I’d like to give him 99.9% of the credit for remaining as tough and as driven and as focused as he did this season, to put together the second half of the season the way he has. He’s really been a catalyst for our team. He deserves a lot of credit for the way we finished this season, the way we turned things around and worked our way back to the second seed.”

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Shaquille O’Neal closed the regular season strong on the boards and in shooting percentage but made only 11 of his final 38 free throws.

Not big on involved discussions about Yao Ming, O’Neal did not address the media Friday.

Bryant, apparently still upset about news accounts of his play in Sunday’s loss at Sacramento, was unavailable to the majority of the media for the fourth consecutive day.