Finish Line Is in Sight

From the October afternoon when he arrived gaunt and conflicted in Hawaii, when it seemed he could not bear another step, let alone a basketball season, Kobe Bryant has nearly reached the conclusion of the regular season.

Facing a rape accusation and the very public trying of it, Bryant attended eight hearings over 12 days in Eagle, Colo., and played 56 basketball games between them.

Weakened physically by two early-summer surgeries and an off-season spent holding to his family, Bryant missed one game because of a sore knee and eight games because of a sore shoulder, and only one because of his frequent trips in and out of Colorado.

In all, Bryant was absent for 17 games, seven when he cut his finger, he said, on a broken window pane in his garage.

But he has played with single-mindedness and, particularly since mid-February, a determination that marked his recent seasons, when his scoring and playmaking made him a first-team All-NBA player.

On Sunday, before the Lakers played the Utah Jazz, Coach Phil Jackson said the season, in regard to Bryant, has been, “very difficult,” adding, “We pushed our way through it.”

Bryant averaged 31.4 points during the seven-game winning streak leading into Sunday’s game. He had at least six assists in 11 of his last 20 games, and has curtailed his tendencies to freelance on defense.

Jackson said Bryant, as a result, has retaken his place as “the top player in the game right now.”

The process, however, was difficult for Bryant, and occasionally chaotic for the team. And Jackson admitted there were times when he wondered if Bryant would be emotionally and physically capable of reaching the end of the season, now less than three weeks away.

“I had some doubts,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be a problem once we got close to the end of the season. I thought the midseason might be difficult, especially with the interruptions going on, going back and forth.

“I think by his own self-admission, it was difficult for him to get focused on basketball, at the level he’s used to playing, at the beginning of the season.”

Jackson surmised that the stability of the team -- a concept that might amuse Laker insiders -- had allowed Bryant to come and go, and the other players to move through the distraction.

He also believed the organization would need to be patient, as bleak and unmanageable as the situation would appear, and wait for Bryant and his game to arrive.

“We knew that if we were going to win we would need to have his services,” Jackson said. “To have him playing well, [to give] whatever was possible for him to contribute to the team until that time he saw his way clear to putting 100% into it, we’d have to adjust. If he could only do 75% or 80% at the beginning of the year, we still had to make that allowance and adjust to that. That was the attitude we started the season with and continued.”

Bryant has a hearing scheduled for Friday, and the Lakers play the SuperSonics in Seattle that night. Also, the judge has set aside April 26-28 and May 10-14 for hearings.

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Apparently, free agency is coming for Bryant, who’ll have a few under-the-cap possibilities (San Antonio, the Clippers and, if he’d humor them, Phoenix, Denver and Atlanta) to consider if he’s intent on leaving the Lakers. Then, every capped-out team in the league will throw its mid-level exception at him and hope it can lure him with promises of offensive freedom and championship expectations.

If Bryant does consider a contract starting at the mid-level exception, which seems doubtful, the most he could get is $16.2 million over three years.

The Lakers can pay Bryant about $142 million over seven years.