Lakers Await Next Act

It was an extraordinary week by any measure, the Lakers winning four games in seven days against the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, and on Monday morning the Laker organization hummed along as it often does this time of year.

At team headquarters in El Segundo, reporters trudged through a steel gate and past red-coated security guards, gathering in a tiny room off the practice gym, waiting to ask questions that had no real answers. The Lakers won’t know their opponent in the Western Conference finals for another couple of days, though the Sacramento Kings, who offer home-court advantage and whose Anthony Peeler was suspended for two games Monday, are getting more attractive by the day.

On the floor, 10 Lakers sprinted from one baseline to the other and back, Coach Phil Jackson standing crookedly, a whistle dangling from his neck, a smirk clinging to his face.

Kobe Bryant had been sent home because of a sore throat, but everybody else was back from Sunday’s afternoon off, from last week’s workmanlike dethroning of the Spurs.

At the top of the stairs and down two hallways, General Manager Mitch Kupchak sat with his back to a window, the blinds half raised. Behind and below him were the players who had joined up in the early days of July, who came together in mid-May.

Kupchak marveled at how quickly it had finally turned.

“I think this team has to have renewed confidence,” he said. “Versus being down, 0-2, I don’t know why that doesn’t carry over to the organization as well, and the fans and the city. People have to feel the same way. But, it doesn’t start with the fans and it doesn’t start with the people that work in the organization. It starts with our coach and the players. They’re the ones, between Game 2 and Game 3, who somehow figured out a way to change the way things were going.”

When they won 56 games in the regular season and four games in the first round of the playoffs, few thought it impressive. This, after all, was supposed to be more than routine. Expectations grew and then wilted. When the Lakers lost the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals, they appeared to have simply taken it as far as they could, considering the burden of their great potential and the injuries that had befallen their superstars.

So it was with perfect symmetry that Gary Payton stood in their locker room Saturday night, months after he had proclaimed, “I didn’t sign up for this,” weeks after he had implied he wouldn’t be back next season, hours after a signature tirade about what people could do with their opinions of him, and said, “This is what I signed here for. This is what I was looking for.”

This was Kupchak’s doing. Kupchak’s and owner Jerry Buss’ and Jackson’s and Magic Johnson’s and Shaquille O’Neal’s and everybody else’s who made a phone call. At 0-2 against the Spurs, though, nobody was thinking about how the Lakers came together. They were wondering how they had come apart and how quickly and how much rubber they would leave in the parking lot.

But, Kupchak said, not he.

“I’m not sure what changes,” he said. “You always have to wait until the season ends before you put together your plan for what you want to do in the off-season. Prior to that, you do have to spend a lot of time going through scenarios, as to what might and might not happen. But, you really don’t know what you’re going to do until the season concludes.

“On top of that, a lot of what we have to address this off-season is out of our control. Players have options ... and can choose to stay or go, including our coach. So, that’s basically how it was a month ago and that’s how it remains today.”

Jackson, his coaching staff, their training staff and eight players can leave or stay. Others can be traded or retire. An expansion draft looms.

But, if the public’s perception of the Lakers has changed, and if perhaps the Lakers’ perception of themselves has freshened, Kupchak insisted his off-season intentions have not. Those close to Kupchak said he has spoken only of keeping the Lakers’ core players together, even in the early days of the series against the Spurs.

Monday morning, Kupchak spoke of maintaining a broader view and pushed back from his desk to illustrate the point.

“You read the articles surrounding this team,” he said. “When we came back here 0-2, every day it was just throwing more dirt on top of the bodies. But, that’s to their credit right there, our coaching staff and the players.

“Gary, you know, I’ll tell you, he’s no politician. He ranted and raved for two days and that’s just how he advances. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. And he did a great job. That’s just the way he kind of is.

“I think this group is that way in general. It always seems, when it gets down to it, they put aside whatever it is that doesn’t need to be dealt with at the present.”

So, the least Kupchak could do, he supposed, was to let them finish it, however they did. Remarkably, they won out against the Spurs. And if they keep winning, maybe the players who were set on leaving will stay, and maybe the players who believed they would stay will have had enough.

“That’s a tough question to answer because there are so many different scenarios and situations,” said Derek Fisher, one of those who could opt out after the season. “But, I definitely think, in winning, sacrifices are made.... So, I think, if you continue to win and at the end of it you win the championship, then there’s a different perspective in terms of what you’re willing to do to still be a part of something special, to still be a part of a team that can be the best, that can be the greatest. Not that everybody then comes back, but then it puts a different list of things that, all of a sudden, are most important to you.

“There are too many different variables, guys at different ages, different stages of their careers, so it would be hard to say at this point. But, I’m sure if you ask anybody that question in the locker room, hopefully when the champagne is flowing, you may get some answers everybody would like to hear.”