War of Words Is Cooling

Depending on who’s talking, Karl Malone is a bandwagon jumper and Reggie Miller is greedy and, well, that’s where we stand.

It began this summer, a month after Malone and Gary Payton had their introductory news conference at Staples Center, the day Miller signed with the Indiana Pacers.

“I didn’t want to be like some other guys,” Miller said from Indianapolis, “who jump on another team’s bandwagon just to get a ring.”

Malone raised an eyebrow and a few days later answered, “Reggie stayed in Indiana for the money.... I did hear, ‘I’m just glad to end my career where I started.’ Reggie, just say you stayed for the money.”

As the Lakers toured the country in the season’s first month, the notion that Malone and Payton had signed to ride the team’s coattails arose occasionally, but generally without much conviction. A closer inspection of the Lakers often revealed that not only would they sell tickets because of the future Hall of Famers, but needed them to compete in the Western Conference.

“I think the whole spirit of free agency is that players should be able to have that choice at some point in their life, in their career,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said.

Malone, at 40, had averaged 14.8 points and 10.2 rebounds through 16 games. Miller, 38, had averaged 10.4 points for the Pacers.

Before Sunday night’s game, Malone feigned a yawn.

“I didn’t even worry about him,” he said. “I think every guy is entitled to do what they want.... Maybe [Miller] was bored this summer and wanted to say something.”

Jackson sought to protect Miller, presuming a reporter “might have had something to accomplish” and that Miller “didn’t actually mean that.”

The “bandwagon” quote, however, was in a statement released by the Pacers announcing the signing of Miller. Later that day, at a charity bowling event, Miller repeated the quote to a reporter, nearly verbatim.

Bottom line, Jackson said: “The fact they chose to come here is really what free agency is all about.”

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Two years ago, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant each were fined $5,000 because their shorts were longer than Commissioner David Stern believed appropriate. It was a league-wide sweep and focused mainly on a handful of the game’s superstars.

The gag that resulted was O’Neal’s donning a pair of John Stockton-like shorts, ridiculously small, and asking if that was what Stern had in mind. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

In Utah, the Jazz players laughed at O’Neal’s shrink-wrap fashion.

“It impressed me he could get all that [rear end] in them,” Malone said.

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Since the start of the 1998-99 season, a year before Jackson arrived and two years after O’Neal signed, the Lakers are 275-119, the most wins and best winning percentage (.698) in the NBA.

In the same period, the Lakers have the best winning percentage in major sports, better than the NFL’s Tennessee Titans (.670), NHL’s Detroit Red Wings (.670) and baseball’s Atlanta Braves (.604).

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In the first four games of the Laker homestand, no starter averaged more than Payton’s 31.5 minutes. O’Neal averaged 25 and missed two games.

The bench played better, but the Lakers benefited mostly from the blowouts of San Antonio, Washington and Memphis.

“It’s really important for basketball clubs to win and win big on their home court, to establish a pattern where they don’t have to grind themselves through ballgames on their home court,” Jackson said. “They can get some wins and they can go ice their knees in the fourth quarter. Everybody gets a chance to play and stay relatively sharp and not wear out your starters in the process. We’re a well-rested team at this particular time of the season.”