Bryant Plays, Fox Sits

Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox were activated from the injured list before Saturday night’s game against the Utah Jazz, Bryant after sitting out six games because of a sprained shoulder, Fox eight months after foot surgery.

Bryant, back from his motions hearing the day before in Eagle, Colo., dismissively declined to discuss his return after the team’s morning shoot-around and again before the game. He tested his shoulder early in the evening, completing 30 minutes of drills by making a half-court shot with his left hand that earned him $40 in a bet with announcer Mychal Thompson. Bryant gave $20 each to two ballboys.

Fox, who didn’t play Saturday, tore a tendon in his foot during Game 4 of the Lakers’ first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves and had surgery on May 12. After that, Fox said, his first goal was to rehabilitate well enough to be fit for his life after basketball.

“Then,” he said, “the second thing was to return to basketball and be a part of this team. The third thing is to win a championship. Two for two, so far.”

Two days after Coach Phil Jackson said he would not subject Fox to an NBA game because he was not physically ready, Fox took one of two roster spots made available when Brian Cook went to the injured list and Ime Udoka’s 10-day contract expired.

He recently lost about 15 pounds and has been practicing for about a month. Jackson said he thought Fox was limited laterally.

“We’re going to find out,” Fox said. “I’ve been guarding Kareem [Rush] and Kobe.... I don’t know if many small forwards are that quick.”

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The Karl Malone statue that will stand outside Delta Center is being designed. The Malone jerseys -- in Laker gold -- hang in the arena’s team store, though sales, according to the clerk, were “so-so.”

This remains Malone’s town, seven months after he left to chase a ring.

Except, on the first weekend the Lakers came through, Malone was resting his sprained right knee in Arkansas, intending to rejoin the team in Los Angeles today.

Jackson smiled and kidded Malone about skipping a chance to wave to the crowd.

“He couldn’t even come here,” he said. “He couldn’t even come to Salt Lake. I don’t want to say he chickened out, but the pressure of being here, not playing, was too much. So he’s hibernating like a bear back in Arkansas right now, he’s under a tree, a lot of snow covering him, and he’s got his honey down there with him. I didn’t mean that literally.

“He was crazy. He was driving himself nuts around here, working himself into more injuries than he was capable of playing, so our therapy was over-therapizing him, so we had to send him away and get him out of here for a while.”

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The Jazz didn’t completely forget Malone, however.

Between the first and second quarters, Utah’s bear mascot had a telephone conversation with a Malone impersonator that was carried over the public address system.

“Go tell Larry [Miller, the Jazz owner] I want to come home,” the faux Malone said. “I don’t care if Stock ain’t there. I want to come home. They’re mean to me here. They don’t give me the ball. They don’t like me.”

The crowd roared.

“But,” the voice said, “I guess it could be worse. I could be Ko--.”

And the line went dead as the crowd, which booed Bryant throughout the game, cheered.

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The Lakers have considered Cherokee Parks and Tyrone Hill, both currently out of work, as they seek another frontcourt player to replace Malone and Cook.

The signing, if it occurs, probably would be a 10-day contract or two until Malone returns.

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Horace Grant said he was drawn back to the Lakers because his father was feeling somewhat better and out of a sense of duty to the organization.

Harvey Grant, Horace’s father, will be tested next week for cancer, said Grant, adding, “Most of the tests so far have come back pretty decent.”

So much had changed since he left more than a week ago, Grant said he boarded the bus to Saturday’s shoot-around, looked around and thought, “Am I on the right bus?”

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Reserve center Jamal Sampson fears a recurrence of bone spurs in his right ankle, an ailment he said required surgery in his senior year at Mater Dei High.

Sampson sprained his ankle in practice Tuesday and has been unable to play since. He will have an MRI exam to determine the cause of swelling and his inability to flex his ankle upward.