Fisher, Williamson Reunite

Then there’s the other NBA Finals childhood story line ...

Before Kobe Bryant and Richard Hamilton met up in high-school gyms in Philadelphia, Derek Fisher and Corliss Williamson were grade-school friends with far-fetched dreams while growing up in Arkansas.

They watched the NBA together as teenagers, including the 1989 NBA Finals, in which the Lakers were swept by the Detroit Pistons. Fisher, a die-hard Laker fan who idolized Magic Johnson, was heartbroken.

Two kids, two sets of hopes, they parted ways for college. The more highly recruited Williamson went on to play for a national championship team at the University of Arkansas. Fisher stayed closer to home at lesser-known Arkansas Little Rock.

Almost a decade later, they will face each other in the NBA Finals.

Fisher has had a more robust playoff run, averaging 7.9 points and drilling the “one-lucky-shot-deserves-another” turnaround jumper with no time left in San Antonio. Williamson has averaged 6.2 points and 2.2 rebounds for the Pistons as a reserve forward.

“We’re going to knock each other around and compete as hard as anybody out there,” Fisher said. “When the series is finally over and the best team has won, we’ll still be able to hug each other and tell each other we’ll see each other back home in the summer.”

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Fisher still winces when asked if he remembers how the limping Lakers got pushed aside by the Pistons in 1989.

“It was hard for me to watch the Pistons end up being successful those years,” he said. “Magic was my favorite guy and seeing him go down with a hamstring injury, and then Byron Scott couldn’t play, it was just a number of different things.

“You look back on NBA history, the Pistons don’t get asterisks next to their title just because Magic was hurt. It was still their job to go out and destroy the Lakers. That’s part of it.”

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Shaquille O’Neal has apparently settled on the number seven before all is said and done.

“I need seven [championships],” he said. “I like being the baddest, and there’s a guy in this organization that has six and I want to be badder than him. So I need seven, so I could be there all by myself.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won five championships with the Lakers and one with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971.

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Devean George practiced Thursday, but Fisher and Karl Malone did not. All three have been nursing knee injuries. Fisher and Malone could practice today and are expected to play Sunday in Game 1.... X-rays of Rick Fox’s shoulder and neck were negative. He might undergo an MRI exam today to further determine the source of sharp pain in the area. He is expected to play Sunday.