Suddenly, No Laughing Matter

By Tim Brown

May 30, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

MINNEAPOLIS — From his chair inside the coaches’ office, Phil Jackson heard only laughter.

So on his way to his pregame news conference Saturday evening, Jackson stopped in the locker room.

“I told them to get their game faces on,” he said, “to get ready for the game.”

For the first time this season, Jackson said, he felt it necessary to center the Lakers before a basketball game. It happened to be Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

“I don’t know what was happening in there,” he said. “ ... Whatever it was that struck them as funny, it was a little over the top.”

Then the Lakers played one strong quarter, the first.

Lewis Katz, the agent for Byron Scott, contacted the Lakers in recent weeks to gauge the team’s interest in his client in the event Jackson did not return, according to a Laker source.

Katz was told that Scott, who accepted the head coaching position with the New Orleans Hornets on Friday, should pursue other openings.

The Lakers suspended negotiations with Jackson three months ago but intend to reopen discussions when the season ends. Owner Jerry Buss and General Manager Mitch Kupchak have not publicly discussed possible replacements for Jackson.

Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, Gary Payton and Karl Malone can opt out of their contracts in the next six weeks. Because Laker management has no control over the player decisions, it probably will make negotiations with Jackson its first order of business.

A day after Florida Today reported that if Tracy McGrady left Orlando he would like to play for the Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs, the Orlando Sentinel wrote that McGrady’s preference was the Houston Rockets.

Welcome to the summer of 2004.

“No, not San Antonio or L.A.,” McGrady was quoted this time. “I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to go where everything’s already in place. That would be too easy. I want a challenge.”

Malone watched the WNBA game on television and when the Sparks had beaten the Detroit Shock, his telephone rang, as he knew it would.

His daughter, Cheryl Ford, scored seven points and took 12 rebounds for the Shock.

“She was bummed,” Malone said.