Robert Horry's Laker career could end tonight, after 6 1/2 seasons, three championships and a handful of memorable jump shots that earned him a reputation as a big-game player.

The Lakers are not expected to exercise a $5.3-million option on Horry's contract for next season. Unless General Manager Mitch Kupchak is able to reach a sign-and-trade deal with another team by midnight ? and those efforts for the last six weeks have proved fruitless ? Horry probably will become a free agent on Tuesday.

He then would be free to negotiate with all teams, including the Lakers, who probably would offer a contract at something closer to $1.4 million, the veteran's minimum. Horry, who will be 33 in August, previously had expressed an interest in finishing his career closer to his home in Houston, if he were not asked back to Los Angeles.

He averaged 6.5 points last season, then 5.6 points in the postseason, when he missed 36 of 38 three-point attempts. One, at the end of Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals in San Antonio, would have given the Lakers the win and a three-games-to-two advantage in that series.

There are pretenders, contenders and champions, and then there are rarities like Kobe Bryant.

The kind of player who prefers to sip champagne only through the funnels of championship trophies, who celebrates just long enough for his clothing to get drenched before new challenges pique his imagination and fuel his motivation.

We call it an inability to smell the roses, to enjoy the sunshine before it rains, but Bryant has had a beautifully scented garden for some time off a boulevard in Hollywood. Even when it rains, his life continues to blossom.

Bryant is 24 years old. A three-time NBA champion. A recent husband, father, and $45 million man with Nike. Yet he is so far from satisfied, he's also the potential nightmare that could paralyze Tinseltown, the very place where dreams are created.

Bryant made news on Thursday when ESPN announced that he plans to opt out of his contract and test free agency after next season expires. But for anyone close to Bryant, this hardly qualified as a surprise.

THAT was quite a story Jim Gray "broke" on draft night; it seems, Kobe Bryant revealed to ESPN's perpetually vigilant correspondent he plans to opt out of his Lakers' contract at the end of the 2003-04 season.

Of course, the "exclusive" might've had a little bit more impact had the L.A. Daily News not divulged identical information almost two months ago.

As usual, ESPN, in its unprincipled determination to establish itself All Knowing, All The Time, thinks its audience is stone stupid and believes the competition is its unattributed, primary source. As usual, its policy-makers have no shame, no conscience and no credibility; its guidelines to reporters are to attach the networks' identity on other people's stories: Viewers simply won't know the difference.

Let me guess, USA Today's "Boob of the Tube," Rudy Martzke, gave Gray Matter a "hustle award" for his flagrant rip-off and regurgitation.

Gray, by the way, offered a list of reasons why Kobe intends to test the free agent market - and risk roughly $100M (what if he becomes permanently disabled while shooting one of his commercials?) by rejecting a long-term extension.

Supposedly, Kobe's unsure what will happen to Phil Jackson (several days ago, the L.A. Daily News reported the Laker coach is interested in signing a 2-year extension to follow '03-04; look for Gray to present that info as his own on ESPN some time in August), he wants to see how the Lakers renovate their roster and he needs to know how conditioned and motivated Shaq is next season.

Phil Jackson will mount his motorcycle and leave Los Angeles today, bound for his Montana home and a summer during which he will consider extending his contract with the Lakers beyond next season.

Jackson is improving steadily from the angioplasty he had during the Lakers' failed playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs and has had preliminary conversations with owner Jerry Buss and General Manager Mitch Kupchak about a two-year extension.

Details of a new contract have not been discussed. A source said Friday that Jackson might consider option years on the extension that would let him coach beyond the 2005-06 season, allowing him to assess his health a year at a time.

Kupchak said Friday he hoped the issue "would be addressed by training camp."

Juwan Howard might be in his final days with the Denver Nuggets.

Word around the NBA is that Howard, who becomes an unrestricted free agent Tuesday, won't re-sign with the Nuggets.

"He's long gone," said an agent who represents another Denver player but asked that his name not be used.

The agent said he got that information through conversations with Howard's representatives. He said it's most likely Howard will end up with the Los Angeles Lakers or in his hometown of Chicago.

Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said Friday he doesn't put any credence in talk about Howard's future unless "David Falk (Howard's agent) made that comment, or Juwan himself."

Efforts to reach Howard were unsuccessful. Falk did not immediately return a message.

Lakers All-Star guard Kobe Bryant says he intends to become a free agent after the 2003-04 season, according to ESPN's Jim Gray.

 

Bryant

But the Lakers don't plan to let him leave without a fight.

"If he does opt out," Los Angeles general manager Mitch Kupchak said, "we'll do everything we can to keep him, and we think we will."

Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal have been the catalysts for three world championships from 2000-02. Drafted by Charlotte in 1996 but traded less than a month later to the Lakers, Bryant has never played for another team.

But he's hinted at wanting to explore options besides the Lakers before. This is the first time, though, that he's said he'll consider his options as a free agent.

According to Gray, Bryant plans to opt out of his contract because he isn't sure what will happen to Lakers coach Phil Jackson; he wants to see what the Lakers' plans for the future are; and because he's never had the chance to test the free-agent market.

He also wants to know the conditioning and motivation of O'Neal, according to Gray.

Jackson indicated Bryant has yet to tell the team of his intentions.

"I thought it was a little premature to make that statement," Jackson said. "Kobe exercising his option, that's not beyond the realm of reason. We've anticipated the possibility for a long time, but we'll wait until we hear it from him."

The Lakers believe they started back on Thursday night, from a six-game loss in the Western Conference semifinals, from the roster erosion that killed their run of NBA championships at three, finally able to do something after six weeks of pondering.

They began the process of rebuilding their roster around Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, first at No. 24 of the NBA draft with Brian Cook, a power forward from Illinois, then three picks into the second round with Luke Walton, a small forward from Arizona and son of Bill, a Hall of Famer and former UCLA star.

Coach Phil Jackson called them "ballplayers that fit the style of basketball we want to play," both somewhat refined after four years of college, then added, "We have to assume that rookies aren't going to help us."

Still, there was a sense the Lakers inched away from all that failed them at season's end, starting a month-long period that could bring the help that they certainly require, and that O'Neal expects.

Phil Jackson, in good health and better spirits, has decided to stay in Los Angeles and coach the Lakers for three more years, several sources told the Daily News on Thursday.
Jackson, who has one year left on his contract, recently informed owner Jerry Buss that he is interested in a two-year extension. Buss agreed in principle, according to three team sources.

Other contract terms have not been discussed, and in all likelihood, a deal will not be completed until late in the summer. Jackson is preparing to leave for his offseason retreat in Montana, and Buss is vacationing in Europe until late August.

The agreement in all likelihood means the Lakers' key people -- Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant -- will remain together to pursue more National Basketball Association titles. Their string of three consecutive championships ended this year and Jackson needs one more title to set an NBA record.

Jackson, who will turn 58 in September, just completed the most physically trying season of his illustrious NBA career. He battled kidney stones at midseason and was hospitalized with a severe artery blockage in early May.

The heart problems had gone undetected, but Jackson had felt the effects for months. Fatigued and stressed, sometimes lacking the energy to get on the court during practice, he considered retiring.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson considers his team "fortunate" to have drafted Illinois power forward Brian Cook and Arizona small forward Luke Walton on Thursday night, mentioning the unselfishness the youngsters can bring.

More prominent on Jackson's mind than his two newest players, though, were his two best players.

Of Shaquille O'Neal, expected to be better prepared physically for next season, Jackson said: "I anticipate with how much people have talked about how great a player Tim Duncan is and how he's the best big man, Shaq's down there gritting his teeth every time he hears that comment. Shaq's got the opportunity to prove to everybody next year that he's the best big man, and I think that's what he wants to do."

Of Kobe Bryant, who has suggested he'll opt out of his Lakers contract after next season and explore free agency, Jackson said: "We've anticipated that possibility for a long time. It's kind of a pressure thing to see how the Lakers will do ... (but) no one likes to walk away from winning, and that's what we plan to do."

Jackson reported improved health for himself and plans to discuss his own contract extension with Lakers owner Jerry Buss later this summer. But this is still a precarious time for the Lakers, trying to get back on top and needing some new faces to get there.

Cook, the 24th overall pick, and Walton, the 32nd, aren't expected to be the difference-makers.

"We have to assume rookies are not going to help us," Jackson said.

Jackson is much more enthused about the "hit list" the Lakers are developing for the opening of free agency Tuesday and the plan "to go aggressively after" skilled veterans. The Lakers want to add a guard and definitely a power forward; Juwan Howard is very interested in signing up to bolster the frontcourt, but remains uneasy with accepting just the $4.5 million mid-level exception.

There is rebuilding to be done, an image to buff up, a measure of pride to be restored, and chances are the deflated, humbled Lakers will achieve none of those objectives through tonight's NBA draft.

But a strategy for regaining their championship form could begin to take shape by the end of the evening, or at the latest, in the days that follow.

The Lakers choose 24th and 32nd tonight, and if recent history means anything, their picks won't amount to anything for at least two years, if ever.

The Lakers' draft hauls of the last five years have brought them marginal role players (Mark Madsen, Devean George and Tyronn Lue) and irrelevant spare parts (Sam Jacobson, John Celestand, Cory Hightower).

Such is the peril of perennially drafting low in the first round.

"You hope for a guy that can help right away," general manager Mitch Kupchak said, "but the reality is it may be a year or two, or three."