Different State of Mind

Somewhere between Great and Crazy, still trying to pick a direction....

Spring is the season of renewal, but no one does it like the Lakers, and even they never had one like this. They now seem to be reenacting their entire Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant era, leading up to the big moment where they see if it’s too late for a happy ending, or if this is the end.

After a season in which Bryant has been at odds with O’Neal and the other players, who believed Kobe would leave, a source says Bryant is now talking privately about staying.

Not that anything Bryant thinks or says means anything before July 1, when he becomes a free agent. However, it’s also the first suggestion of a thaw in the Lakers’ long, excruciating season.

And whether it was coincidence or not, after Tuesday’s Game 4, O’Neal began proclaiming Bryant as “the best player ever.”

If this sounds familiar, it should. It’s like the 2001 West finals -- against the Spurs, who else? -- when O’Neal called Bryant “my idol.”

O’Neal said that after Bryant, then 22 and rising to new heights, led the Lakers to upset wins in Games 1 and 2 in the Alamodome, setting up their 4-0 sweep.

Everyone in the media room waited for the punch line until O’Neal said he wasn’t kidding, heralding the end of their feud and beginning two years of peace (at least, between O’Neal and Bryant) before this season’s revival of hostilities.

This contrasts with O’Neal’s attitude two months ago when it was suggested that he might have a lot to do with Bryant’s decision.

Suggesting yet again he didn’t care whether Bryant left -- or was hoping he would -- O’Neal issued only a tepid statement of support with plenty of disclaimers (business was business, etc.) and didn’t mention it again.

Of course, the Lakers’ rally from 0-2 in this series amounted to a major turnaround for a team that seemed to be coming apart at the seams, but then, that’s what they do.

Nevertheless, even they had never been in a fix like this.

They flew home from San Antonio last week amid rumbles that owner Jerry Buss was so upset, he would trade O’Neal if that was what it took to keep Bryant.

Buss had long since broken off talks for an extension with Coach Phil Jackson. A source says that was done in the hope of mollifying Bryant.

Jackson had asked for a stupendous salary, reportedly $12 million, twice his present $6 million. However, the two sides were close to agreement before Buss pulled back, reportedly because he had become aware that bringing Jackson back might cost him Bryant.

That was when the Lakers made their odd decision to announce talks with Jackson were off. Bryant, asked what effect a Jackson departure would have on his decision, replied, “I don’t care.”

Was this a fun season or what?

Not that things were ever normal here. There had never been anything like O’Neal and Bryant, compared by Boston General Manager Danny Ainge to Michael Jordan playing with Wilt Chamberlain.

With little balance or depth, the Shaq-Kobe Lakers still had a huge margin of error over all challengers. However, their rivals were already whittling into that margin before this season, which may be remembered here as the War Between the Lakers.

The day before Sunday’s Game 3, Jackson reflected at length on the possible end of his Laker career, acknowledging a loss would be a “death knell,” while Gary Payton went off about suggestions he was being outplayed by Tony Parker.

Media people, who’d been pouring into town in case the colossus fell on its face, were transfixed at the drama, the emotion, the personalities.

Of course, around here, we would just call a day like that “Saturday.”

The Shaq-Kobe Lakers proceed according to two principles: 1) They don’t hate each other enough to actually stop playing, and 2) They don’t like each other enough to actually get along.

Once again, they managed to get in touch with their inner team in the nick of time, wiping the Spurs out in Game 3.

Then, in what could have been the last time O’Neal and Bryant wore the same uniform at Staples Center, they came from 10 points behind to win Game 4 with Bryant, just off the jet from Eagle, Colo., rising to even greater heights, as he had in three other games he played after spending the day in court.

“I think everybody is impressed with the way Kobe is able to compartmentalize,” said Spur Coach Gregg Popovich. “He’s going through a tough time. You feel badly for him, for the young lady, for their families. The whole situation, it’s just awful for everybody. You wish people didn’t have to go through that, but that’s the reality of the thing. And he’s handling it as best he can and doing it silently and with class, doing what he has to do as far as the basketball court is concerned and as far as the court in Colorado is concerned....

“I’m sure when we see the film -- I already know. I was there. I watched. He made some unbelievable shots, but he’s an unbelievable player. So it’s not like this is an aberration and the next time we see this is going to be when there’s an eclipse or something. The guy does this.

“I think they’re playing now basically like they did the beginning of the year when they were 16-3. They don’t need a whole lot of time together. They’re pretty experienced guys. Shaq and Kobe, when they’re playing like that, they make their team pretty darn tough.”

For his part, a spent Bryant said he told teammates at halftime that this was only a game, prompting someone to ask whether his new perspective flowed from real-life experience.

“You know, yeah,” he said, sighing. “It is. It [basketball] is kind of like a psychiatrist. It takes your mind away from so many things. So many things.

“When you love what you do, no matter what it is, when you love your profession, when you love your job, it’s an escape.”

Harrowing as this is, it’s inescapable for Laker fans, who only thought they’d seen exciting postseasons before. Where this one ends, and what happens then, nobody knows.