News |

LAKERS’ 1-2 PUNCH A REAL KNOCKOUT

Jordan and Pippen, Magic and Kareem, Bird and McHale, Russell and Cousy, West and Baylor, Erving and Malone, Chamberlain and Greer, Thomas and Dumars, Unseld and Hayes.

Shaq and Kobe.

Do they belong?

“I’ll tell you,” Lakers forward Glen Rice said. “This is the best duo I’ve seen in a long time. And they are going to be together forever.

“I’ve been able to sit back and watch those guys go out and do their thing. It’s an unbelievable duo.”

Certainly, it’s the best the NBA has to offer for now, and O’Neal and Bryant demonstrated it throughout the Lakers’ playoff march to a championship, particularly in the clinching Game 6 here Monday when the Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers 116-111.

O’Neal had 41 points and 12 rebounds in 47 minutes, including 13 points in the fourth quarter when the Lakers recovered from a six-point deficit early in the quarter.

“It was the ugliest 41 I’ve ever had,” said O’Neal, who broke down in tears after the game.

“It just came out,” he said of his emotional moment. “I’ve held the emotion for 11 years, three years of college, eight years in the league. I took a lot of bashing. `He’s not working hard.’ For a while there can be no `buts’ behind my name. I always wanted to win.”

O’Neal went into the playoffs a force and came out a near legend as he moved in behind only Michael Jordan and Jerry West in playoff scoring, and joined an elite group of Jordan, Elgin Baylor, Rick Barry and Hakeem Olajuwon to score more than 30 points in each Finals game.

He scored at least 40 points in half the games. And now he joins Larry Bird, Jordan, Magic Johnson, Olajuwon, Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone to win regular and Finals’ MVP’s in the same season.

“As far as the total package, I’ve never seen one as powerful,” said Pacers coach Larry Bird.

In the final game, Bryant was equally impressive.

He had 26 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, including a pair of penetrating drives and passes for O’Neal slam dunks. He played 45 minutes, spending much of his time on defense harassing Mark Jackson in Phil Jackson’s usual strategy of using his best defender to thwart an opponent’s principal playmaker.

“Hard work pays off,” said the precocious 21-year-old, who said he knew the Lakers would win Monday at the opening tip. “If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying, keep pushing. You’ll get there eventually. If you become obsessed with a goal and you’re really determined to get it, you’re going to get it no matter what it is.

“Are we looking to coming back next year and defending our throne? Absolutely.”

But are the Lakers a dynasty in the making with the league’s best center at 28 years old and arguably the NBA’s best perimeter player at 21? “The first of many,” Lakers owner Jerry Buss exulted. “Just like it was before.”

Not quite, actually. The economics of the NBA are changing and the Lakers are one of the teams accepting that change. After next season, a luxury tax will be in effect for teams over a certain payroll figure, estimated to be about $55 million. Buss has said the Lakers will not pay the luxury tax, which is one of the reasons he overruled Jackson and General Manager Jerry West and refused to trade for Scottie Pippen.

O’Neal has three years left on a contract that escalates to $23.5 million after the 2002-03 season. Bryant just started a six-year, $71 million contract that pays $14.6 million in 2004-05.

Already, the Lakers are committed to $51 million in salaries for the 2001-02 season. So they’re not about to add long-term contracts or get high draft picks.

With Ron Harper and A.C. Green as starters, this probably was the weakest of the 12 Lakers champions. Both are likely to be replaced as starters, and Rice, who was in conflict all season with Jackson over his role in the offense, is expected to be traded. Reserve Derek Fisher is a small guard signed to a long contract before Jackson, who doesn’t like small guards. Brian Shaw was just an emergency replacement when Bryant missed the first six weeks of the season. All could be gone.

Jackson has interest in former Bull Toni Kukoc to help run his system and he could be traded for Rice. Or Rice could yield a power forward such as Charles Oakley since the Western Conference is loaded with top power forwards such as Karl Malone, Chris Webber, Tim Duncan and Rasheed Wallace.

But the Lakers do have Shaq and Kobe.

“They have an opportunity here to do something great for a number of years,” said Bird.

He would know.