Jackson: Bryant Given Too Much Space

With the Lakers still alive -- and even before the Houston Rockets’ season died -- Phil Jackson performed an autopsy on his relationship with Kobe Bryant and where it went wrong this year.

The short take: Jackson gave Bryant an inch and Bryant ran for more yards than Jamal Lewis.

“I felt at some times Kobe might have taken advantage of our flexibility,� Jackson said in the hours before Lakers beat Houston, 97-78, in the fifth and final game of their playoff series. “That’s where it came to, I guess.�

It was an amazing scene, one possible only in the soap opera that is the Lakers. The Rockets -- you know, the team the Lakers were trying to eliminate -- came up only once, when Jackson happened to mention their good defense.

After taking questions about the logistics of getting Bryant back into the mix after three days of pretrial hearings in Colorado and giving injury reports on Shaquille O’Neal and Slava Medvedenko, Jackson was asked about his handling of Bryant, a key component in a new ESPN Magazine story.

Normally this is the type of topic that Jackson would rather not discuss before a game. Wednesday he practically had to be pulled away from the podium. When Laker public relations director John Black said, “That’s all he has time for,� Jackson, who has a quicker first step than Steve Francis when it’s time to leave the media, smiled and said: “I’ve got time for a lot more.�

It was as if Jackson needed to get this off his chest.

Perhaps Jackson was prompted by a little trip down memory lane. Before he met with reporters, he spent some time with Dennis Rodman, which must have reminded him of the good old days with the Chicago Bulls when Jackson’s problems were limited to coping with his dyed-hair, multi-tattooed power forward’s propensity to head-butt referees, kick cameramen and leave town for wrestling matches in the middle of the NBA Finals.

Rodman said Jackson could handle all of the ongoings in Lakerland, because it’s “just like the last couple years in Chicago.�

Actually, it isn’t. Even Jackson has said recently that in Chicago the drama never extended to the court, as it has with the Lakers this year.

Bryant took his freedom as license to do whatever he wanted on the court, regardless of the effect on the offense or his teammates.

The players wanted Jackson to lecture Bryant or limit his playing time until he got with the program. Jackson, who was seeking a contract extension, couldn’t afford to alienate Bryant or Bryant’s fans -- chief among them owner Jerry Buss.

The more Bryant rebelled against Jackson, be it refusing orders or defiantly cursing him out in practice, the more other players lost respect for Jackson. They already had issues with the offense and the rotation, so this was one more gap between the coach and his team. But Jackson said this fissure has sealed.

“I think that Kobe and I have a very good relationship at this time,� Jackson said. “As far, comparatively, at the beginning of the season and the middle of the season, which was mostly due to my hands-off attitude, just letting him go in his own direction. As opposed to at this particular time, where we’re connecting a lot about what we’re trying to get accomplished at this time. He’s been my designated floor general for the last couple weeks. I think that he’s doing a good job, and I’m telling him that.

“There’s been some spots where I think it can improve, but for the most part I think we’re in sync with what we’re trying to get accomplished, the direction we’re trying to reach.�

After Bryant was charged with felony sexual assault last summer, Jackson decided to give his young superstar space. Bryant has maintained the sex was consensual and will plead not guilty.

Jackson withheld judgment and refrained from any public criticism of Bryant’s actions or his game on the court. He let Bryant follow his own schedule; for example, Bryant rode a motorcycle from his home in Newport Beach to an exhibition game at the Pond in Anaheim, rather than take the team bus.

“I think a lot of times in those situations a person needs a lot of space,� Jackson said. “I’d never dealt with it before. My understanding was that oppressiveness and control and all those other things might have been more of an impediment than it would be productive. I didn’t want to create an impediment in that situation. I wanted him to be productive.

“But it didn’t seem to be working in that direction. I think more attention was better than less.

“I think that he felt that I probably didn’t care ... just looking back at it now, [he thought] I probably didn’t care about his behavior, what he was doing, as opposed to the relationship that I wanted him to have, which was to come into the group.�

Whenever Jackson did offer public advice to Bryant, such as a reminder in a February interview that the offense still runs through O’Neal, Bryant seemed to take offense. Some players thought Bryant tried to beat the San Antonio Spurs single-handedly April 4 because Jackson said not to the day before.

Are things really that much better now?

If they are, perhaps it’s because they realize they need to tolerate each other only for a maximum of two more months, and maybe they can pick up their fourth championship together along the way.

Their relationship sure wasn’t an impediment to Bryant having his breakout game of the playoffs. And Jackson wasn’t flexible, pulling Bryant just five minutes into the game after he missed his first two shots and his man, Cuttino Mobley, scored eight points. But they were on good enough terms that Bryant called it “an excellent move.�

Common ground. At least temporarily.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.

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Split Days

A look at the three games Kobe Bryant has played on the same date he has had a court hearing in Colorado:

Dec. 19 -- AT LAKERS 101, DENVER 99

* Bryant enters the game at start of second quarter, finishes with 13 points, including game-winner from top of the key as time expires.

March 24 -- AT LAKERS 115, SACRAMENTO 91

* Bryant arrives at Staples Center less than an hour before game time, then scores 20 of his 36 points in the first half.

April 28 -- AT LAKERS 97, HOUSTON 78

* Bryant arrives at Staples Center 26 minutes before game time, then scores 31 points and has 10 assists as Lakers win first-round series.