Shaw and Harper Provide Ex Factor

The Laker season had yet to begin and already it was on the brink.

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant spent the two days before opening night shredding each other in the media. A mild dispute had quickly escalated into personal attacks, giving the Lakers their in-house version of the wildfires raging in Southern California at the time.

Devean George thought of the one man to douse the Laker flames. He called Brian Shaw, the popular ex-Laker who had retired in the off-season and moved to Oakland in his newly created, roving staff position.

“B. Shaw, kiss the wife and the kids and get down here,” George told him. “We need you right away.”

Remember the Wolf, Harvey Keitel’s character in “Pulp Fiction” who came in, told Jules and Vincent how to clean up their mess and saved the day? The Lakers have two wolves in Shaw and Ron Harper. And the Lakers would not be in the NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons without them.

Coach Phil Jackson calls them his “alumni.”

“I think they pretty much know what I want to say,” he said. “I’m actually the one that’s fortunate to have them around to say things that I may not have to repeat or even broach.”

When they played, Jackson would send in Harper or Shaw whenever the offense or concentration frayed, and everyone settled down.

“He always said I had a calming effect on a lot of the guys,” Shaw said.

That made him George’s first call when things got hot between the superstars.

Shaw flew down to Los Angeles the morning of the Lakers’ opening game against the Dallas Mavericks. He gathered O’Neal and Bryant. Shaw also brought in Gary Payton, Karl Malone and Horace Grant -- “Just in case the Big Fella was going to try to take off, I needed some help to hold him down,” Shaw said.

He told O’Neal and Bryant to say what they needed to say to each other, not through the media. And not to let their feelings affect their play.

“My thing was, on the teams I played on, there were a lot of guys that never hung out, couldn’t stand each other off the court, but the way they played you’d never know,” Shaw said. “You never saw [Kevin] McHale and [Larry] Bird hanging out, but they were the best of teammates.”

In the meeting, “They spoke their mind. Looked each other in the eye. They both understood where each other was coming from. By the time the meeting was over, Karl and Gary let it be known that they came here, they were looking forward to being with those guys. It wasn’t just [O’Neal and Bryant’s] issue at stake. They sacrificed a lot to play as well.

“They looked each other in the eye, hugged each other, came out and participated in the shoot-around, came out and won the game that night.”

And Shaw had immediately yielded a return on the Lakers’ decision to hire him in the off-season.

“On my card it says, ‘Assistant Director of Scouting and Player Development,’ ” Shaw said. “I say I’m the liaison, the troubleshooter.”

Harper doesn’t have a business card. He hasn’t worked at all since his second and final year with the Lakers in 2001. He was back in his hometown of Cleveland when he watched the Lakers drop the first two games of the conference semifinals to the San Antonio Spurs.

“I said, ‘I’m going to Los Angeles,’ ” Harper said. “Ain’t no way we’re losing to San Antonio. I knew that was the team we had to beat. I feel like when I’m there, the guys feel at ease.”

Notice he said “we.”

“I feel like that’s my team still,” Harper said.

Jackson, who brought Harper to the Lakers in 1999 after coaching him in Chicago, gives him carte blanche to address the squad.

“Phil says, ‘Say whatever you need to say,’ ” Harper said. “ ‘Don’t hold your tongue.’ ”

“It’s a thing where he respects me, and I respect him. I think that the guys on the team, they have a respect for me too. And for Shaw.”

Harper’s first order of business when he arrived during the second round was to find Gary Payton, who had been outscored by Tony Parker, 50-11.

“I told G.P., ‘Show me the old one, the guy who hit guys,’ ” Harper said. “ ‘The guy who looked to score. You need to tell Phil you’re going to run screen-and-rolls. Run screen-and-rolls. Attack that kid.”

Payton vented to Jackson and the media, and he gained more control of the offense and more help on defense. He outplayed Parker the rest of the way, and the Lakers won the series.

Like the Wolf’s instructions, sometimes the advice from Harper and Shaw seems completely obvious. But even NBA players need to be reminded about the finer points of the game, especially when they can hear them from someone besides the same old coaches. And, unlike his professed feelings for his head coach, Bryant actually likes Harper as a person. If Jackson has a point to make to Bryant, Harper makes a much better messenger.

“I’ve known Brian since I was a little kid, but Harp, more so than Brian, is really a mentor for me in this offense and just basketball in general,” Bryant said. “It’s always great to have him around.”

Shaw grew up with Payton in Oakland, and when he read Payton’s body language during the first round of the playoffs, Shaw joined the team and even sat next to Payton on the bench during Game 3 in Houston.

He reminded Payton that he needed to cheer for Derek Fisher the same way Fisher cheered when he was in the game. As a former point guard in Jackson’s offense, he told Payton he would have to resign himself to the ball’s going to Bryant and O’Neal in the fourth quarter, instead of staying in his hands. He also knew how point guards could be left hanging when opponents ran the pick-and-roll and told Payton that if O’Neal wasn’t going to step out on guards, Payton would have to come over the screens and force the guards into O’Neal.

For Shaw and Harper, this is their way of continuing to help a winning team. And it shows how strong their bond remains with the Lakers.

Shaw had never played more than three years with any of his previous six teams until he spent four years with the Lakers.

“Them giving me an opportunity to continue to work for them and represent them, I’m excited,” Shaw said. “It means a lot to me.”

For Harper it isn’t even about a paycheck.

“The only thing that I want them to do is play as good team ball as they can play,” he said. “I don’t want a consultant fee. I want them to win an NBA championship.

“If they do, I feel like I did my job.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.