Bryant Is Back in Camp

By TIM BROWN

Oct. 5, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

HONOLULU — Kobe Bryant walked back into the Lakers’ lives on Thursday evening, six days after leaving to attend the funeral of his grandfather.

Melancholy after the passing of John Cox, his mother’s father, who was 68 when he died Friday in Philadelphia, Bryant said it was time for basketball again.

“I’m going to have to get my butt back in shape,” he said. “My grandfather, he’s not the type who’d want me to sulk on something. He’d want me to get up and get going. If he ever had a bad day, you’d never ever tell. Every day was a good day for him.”

Bryant said he would play Sunday, when the Lakers open their exhibition season against the Golden State Warriors. Jim Cleamons, helping to run practices in the absence of Phil Jackson, whose mother died this week, said he was awaiting a call from Jackson regarding Sunday’s plan.

“Once I step on a basketball court, I try to forget everything else, focus on playing,” Bryant said. “Basketball has always been my getaway. It’s fun to be here with the fellas.”

It appeared he was looking forward to the outlet. Twenty minutes before practice, Bryant spoke about his grandfather. “When I [lived] in Italy, he used to send me tapes of the NBA games,” Bryant said. “They wouldn’t come on TV back there. So he’d package them up and send me all the games.

“When we’d come back from Italy in the summertime, we’d go over to his house and go swimming. ... I’m more worried for my grandmother. They’ve been together for 50 years. Now she has to move on, deal with life without waking up next to him every morning.”

The Lakers practiced twice, once without Bryant and then with him. They’ll practice twice again today, once Saturday and then play their first exhibition game.

Without Jackson, Cleamons said, camp was running as smooth as could be expected.

“You always miss your head coach,” he said, “especially under these conditions. But, he knows we’re capable.”

Cleamons smiled and added, “I think.”

The funeral for Jackson’s mother, Elisabeth, is today in Montana.

Jackson is expected to fly Sunday to Los Angeles, then decide whether to continue to Honolulu on Monday or simply await the team’s return, on Wednesday.

Dennis Scott, whose three-point aptitude and friendship with Shaquille O’Neal got him into camp, still has a soft, true shooting touch. What the Lakers are watching in Scott, however, are his legs, and whether they can hold up to the up-and-down pounding. The sense is that Scott is a longshot, even at a time when the team is in need of shooters.

Mitch Richmond, who had swelling in his knee before camp but appeared to benefit from Wednesday’s day off, ran well Thursday.