SHERIDAN on basketball: Kobe-less Lakers at ease in San Diego
As far as I'm concerned, Shaq and Kobe probably need each other to win. But this is an intriguing story...
By CHRIS SHERIDAN, AP Basketball Writer
October 15, 2003
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Shaquille O'Neal was in a chatty mood, neither mumbling nor meowing as he sat in a sweltering locker room and said so much with what he did not say.
Asked why he was sitting out with a sore left heel, O'Neal replied: "I want to be right for Derek, Karl and Gary.''
Notice a name missing there?
O'Neal's omission of Kobe Bryant was not a mistake. He repeated that quote again, giving unspoken insight into the feelings being felt inside a locker room that seemed at ease Tuesday night without Bryant around.
One can only wonder: Is O'Neal feeling some sort of perverse pleasure in seeing his superstar teammate's life in turmoil as he defends himself against a rape allegation in Colorado?
O'Neal and Bryant have never been close during their seven years together, their relationship ranging from icy at its worst to tepid at its best.
O'Neal is always capable of taking a veiled shot at Bryant, and this was a sequel of sorts to his pronouncement on the first day of camp that "the full team IS here'' when Bryant failed to report because he was "under the weather.''
O'Neal sat at his locker Tuesday wearing a garish red and white sweat suit, with one new teammate -- Gary Payton -- listening in from his left, and another -- Karl Malone -- eventually plopping down in the seat to his right.
That threesome has a combined 42 years of NBA experience, and the trio was talkative on a night when Bryant did not travel with the team for two reasons -- a sore knee would have kept him from playing, and a judge in Colorado had mandated his presence Wednesday at Part II of his preliminary hearing.
"Didn't want him here,'' coach Phil Jackson said. "I know he'd be a distraction.''
O'Neal switched to an all-black ensemble and watched from the bench as Payton, Malone and the rest of his supporting cast lost 104-86 to the Phoenix Suns before a sellout crowd of 13,144 that included legions of fans wearing Lakers jerseys -- and yes, some of them were clad in Bryant's No. 8.
The Laker Girls made the two-hour trip south, as did longtime public address announcer Lawrence Tanter.
Bryant did not, and he may not be in uniform Thursday night, either, when the Lakers play at the Staples Center against rookie LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bryant's first game could be Friday against Phoenix or Sunday against the Cavs, Jackson said.
One byproduct of the Kobe waiting game is the mood-measuring around a team with an inner dynamic that is markedly different from a year ago.
Gone are three of last year's part-time starters, Robert Horry, Mark Madsen and Samaki Walker, replaced by an assortment of the very old (in NBA terms) and very young.
The presence of Malone, 40, Payton, 35, Horace Grant, 38, O'Neal, 31, and Bryon Russell, 32, gives the room an old feel. There are eight rookies and second-year players, with Devean George and Slava Medvedenko the only ones with more than one and less than seven years of NBA experience.
It's been more than two weeks since the team assembled in Honolulu, and the players are growing accustomed to the circus atmosphere that surrounds them to varying degrees on different days.
When the news is Kobe-driven, everyone in the organization has to deal with added and unwanted attention. O'Neal has been answering "Meow'' to most questions concerning Bryant -- the big fella's slang for "CAT'' or "can't answer that.''
With Bryant away, the unease was temporarily absent.
Payton gabbed with reporters about what he's seen in early preseason games (he chided Keith Van Horn for his eight turnovers in Sunday's Spurs-Knicks game), Malone described the huge sense of loss he's felt since the death of his mother last summer, while O'Neal discussed his weight (339 pounds as of Monday) and the type of money he'd want if he gets another three-year contract extension ("Put it this way, I won't take a BMW from somebody when I know I can get a Maybach from someone else.''
).
But Shaq sent a message, too, by omitting Bryant from the list of those he's playing for -- a list that included only Derek Fisher, Malone and Payton.
It may have spoke volumes about what's being felt inside the team.
TTT/Shaq doesn't dig the Kobester
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