What You’re Seeing Today Will Be Legend Tomorrow

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —  Fifteen or 20 years from now some phenom will stride into the NBA Finals’ championship news conference wearing a Laker jersey with a big “8” on his back, paying homage to superstar Kobe Bryant, and we will understand.

Wednesday night it was a young Bryant, hanging a Michael Jordan jersey and a Jordan rookie warm-up shirt in his Continental Airlines Arena locker for inspiration, because “he’s the greatest of them all,” he said, and when it’s all said and done, I wonder.

The championship trophy in his arms, Kobe walked down a long hallway to the interview room after the Lakers had swept the Nets, saying he loved the smell of championship champagne, and so he said, he’d keep his Jordan prizes dry.

“Unbelievable feeling to have three right now,” he said. “I can’t tell the future, so I don’t know how many more of these there will be, but I’ve already said something to the guys about getting ready for next year.”

For some time he has sounded like Jordan, and now come the results, and at such a young age.

Now no one provided more stirring championship moments in recent years than Jordan, of course, and while Shaquille O’Neal is unquestionably the giant that cannot be stopped, Bryant is 23 going on three championships with a hunger for more.

“Shoot, by the time he’s finished,” Magic Johnson said, “he could have nine or 10 championships. That’s very realistic.”

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A YEAR ago Kobe sat in the Laker locker room after the clinching victory over Philadelphia and almost sobbed, his shoulders heaving as he fought to catch his breath, the pressure that most 22-year-olds never feel finally finding a release.

There was the feud with Shaq, the private Kobe dealing with family problems, the critics demanding maturity overnight, and it all taking place in an unforgiving public forum.

“I was just sitting there in the locker room tired and stressed out,” he acknowledged. “So much happened last year ... just so much.

“But this is different,” he said, the Kobe grin adding an exclamation point. “This whole season has been great. It’s the happiest season I have ever had--from start to finish.”

After this championship run he slapped the hands of fans and media alike, posing for everyone with an Instamatic, and looking nothing like a man who had ripped the hearts out of the Nets and their fans with another fourth-quarter patented-Kobe blitz.

A miserable three of 10 after three quarters, those in L.A. who are blessed to watch the young man grow year-by-year know it doesn’t matter how badly things have gone because with this competitor’s Jordan-like killer instinct, the next shot is going to win the game.

Kobe made four of six in the fourth quarter, including a three-point dagger the Nets couldn’t possibly have expected him to make. (One more dig for the kid, who I’ve claimed couldn’t outshoot my daughter from three-point range.)

And after all the teasing for his erratic three-point shooting, he finished two of three in Game 4--a remarkable 22 of 58 from long range in the playoffs, and as I understand now, throw a challenge his way and he will respond.

“Did you see those threes?” he yelled at me. “And when they counted.”

“There’s a lot to be said for luck,” I shot back, and he roared with approving laughter. It was nice to hear.

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CLIPPER ELTON Brand said he had plans to sneak out of Game 4 at halftime, making it clear he felt uncomfortable being at a NBA playoff game as a spectator after receiving an award from the Pro Basketball Writers.

Brand has been in the NBA three years and has yet to appear in a playoff game. I told him, “Don’t feel badly--it could be worse, you could be playing for the Dodgers.”

The Lakers have won 95 playoff games since the Dodgers last won a postseason game.

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GAMBLER PHIL Mickelson was quoted in a New York newspaper Wednesday morning predicting the Nets would win the final two games in East Rutherford “and open L.A.’s eyes.” I was concerned initially when I read it, because if he was suggesting the Lakers might choke, he does have some expertise in this area.

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I RECEIVED the following e-mail from Brandon Dunne:

“I think Bill Walton is quite possibly the dumbest idiot in all of sports, constantly contradicting himself, making outrageous overstatements that are so obscure his colleagues mock him at times. But I’d like to hear from someone like yourself.”

I think Bill Walton is the MVP of these Finals, and the NBA playoffs as a whole, beginning with the “The Love it Live Tour,” and rising above a boring series to make the prime-time NBA show entertaining.

“Once again too much coffee for Bill,” said NBC’s Marv Albert after another Walton outburst, and I hope he never switches to decaffeinated.

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HOW MANY teams in the NBA could get away with signing Isaiah Rider and Mitch Richmond back-to-back, get so little out of them and win it all? You could probably add Scottie Pippen to this team now and win it again.

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PAMELA ANDERSON has agreed to become a columnist for “Jane” magazine. And we get stuck with Rick Majerus.

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WNBA PLAYERS say they are ready to strike. To each one of them, I say, “You go, girl.”

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Mike Pfirrman:

“Your article on Donald Stern confirmed one thing: You are definitely the biggest idiot I have ever read in the Times.”

His name is David. David Stern.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at [email protected].