Lakers Move Forward

Talk about saving the best for last. It wasn’t the Laker career Glen Rice envisioned, but it was some spectacular exit.

Rice, who came west looking for riches and had to settle for a title, was supposed to sign with the Chicago Bulls Wednesday but in this summer of collapsing deals, another one bit the dust. Instead, Rice’s agent, David Falk, finally found a way to accommodate several of his beleaguered clients and his four-team, 12-player blockbuster was on.

When the smoke cleared, the Lakers got Seattle’s Horace Grant, Greg Foster, Emanual Davis and Chuck Person.

The Knicks got Rice and the Lakers’ Travis Knight, Phoenix’s Luc Longley and Seattle’s Vern Maxwell, Vladimir Stepania and Lazaro Borrell--plus the Lakers’ and SuperSonics’ No. 1 picks next spring.

Seattle gets New York’s Patrick Ewing, also a Falk client.

Phoenix gets New York’s Chris Dudley.

“I’m relieved,” said Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak Wednesday night, having just made his first trade as Jerry West’s successor. “I know our coaching staff is relieved as well.”

And well they should be. They began Wednesday, looking at the possibility of Rice, their last tradable chip, signing with the Bulls. This would have left the Lakers with holes to fill and nothing to show for the 1999 trade that sent Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell to Charlotte.

Kupchak knew press reports of Rice’s imminent signing were exaggerated, or at least he hoped they were.

“There were rumors all last week that he was going to sign in Chicago,” Kupchak said. “I knew different, but you’re never sure. Maybe he got back to them and while you were driving home, he signed.”

Instead of nothing, the Lakers got Grant, an old (35) but respectable power forward, who played on three championship teams for Phil Jackson in Chicago and competed alongside Shaquille O’Neal in Orlando.

They also unloaded Knight and the remaining four years--at $15.4 million--on his contract. Knight was a surprise as a Laker rookie but, after signing with the Boston Celtics, flopping as a starting center and returning in a trade for Tony Battie, he became a non-person under Jackson.

“We need, as I’ve been reading, help in the frontcourt,” Kupchak said, “and I don’t think there’s a better player out there to help us than Horace Grant.

“No. 1, he’s a true power forward. He’s experienced, and he’s experienced with Phil. He knows how to win and he’s won.”

Rice was considered the game’s best shooter when the Lakers traded Jones and Campbell for him two seasons ago, but the man teammates called G-Money was never that player here.

He had never been anything less than the No. 1 option on his teams, but he became No. 3 behind Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, and neither of them required screens to get shots off, as he did.

Rice’s two Laker seasons were two of his worst as a pro. His shooting percentages, 43.2% and 43%, were his worst. His average last season, 15.9, was his worst since his rookie season in 1989-90.

The Lakers had long since made it clear they wouldn’t give Rice, a free agent, the $100-million contract he wanted, making Glen a progressively unhappier camper. When his wife, Christina Fernandez, publicly blasted Jackson during the NBA finals for burying her hubby, there was scant indignation within the organization: Everyone already knew Rice was going to be traded.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, Rice was 33, coming off two bad seasons with big salary demands, and there wasn’t much of a market.

But Falk had more problems.

Ewing may have been the greatest Knick of all, but he was certainly the least appreciated per point scored. At a creaky 38, he had one season left under contract and the team wanted to move him while it could.

Meanwhile in Seattle, the SuperSonics had just tried playing with Grant at center in a conference loaded with big teams and were upset at the play of Vin Baker, another $70-million bust and himself a former Falk client.

In August, Falk worked out a deal, sending all his clients somewhere else: Rice to New York, Ewing to Seattle and Baker to New York. However, that one fell through when the Detroit Pistons, the fourth team, pulled out.

Afterward, Dallas Coach Don Nelson claimed credit for breaking up the deal, saying he called the Pistons to tell them it was an awful deal for them and offering a better one.

By then, the Lakers had failed to land any of the power forwards they had pursued over the summer: Charlotte’s P.J. Brown, Atlanta’s Lorenzen Wright, Orlando’s John Amaechi and Detroit’s Christian Laettner.

Falk tried to reconstruct the deal as a three-way last week, with Grant going to the Lakers. That didn’t work, either.

Rice then flew to non-contending, supposedly-rebuilding-with-youth Chicago last week and agreed in principle to a one-year $7.5-million deal. He didn’t want to be there, and the Bulls only wanted him for a season. Falk seemed out of answers, hoping only to park his client somewhere for a season.

Rice was supposed to fly back to Chicago Wednesday and take his physical. The Bulls thought it was on. They planned a news conference to announce he had signed.

The Lakers were going to be the ones with their noses pressed against the window, left with reedy Robert Horry at power forward, no one left to trade that anyone wanted and no better prospect on the horizon than former Bull Dickey Simpkins.

Instead of a news conference, however, the Bulls released a terse statement: “The Chicago Bulls no longer have any interest in signing free agent Glen Rice.”

Falk finally had found a deal that worked.

The Lakers got the power forward they’d been seeking for years.

The SuperSonics got a real center in Ewing, even if he’s a real old one.

The Suns got out from under the last four years and $26.5 million on Longley’s contract, having learned he wasn’t the one who led the Bulls to all those titles.

What the Knicks got remains to be seen. Longley will hardly make anyone in Manhattan forget Ewing, except fondly, at long last. With Rice there (with a four-year, $36-million sign-and-trade deal), the Knicks may now have to trade Allan Houston or Latrell Sprewell.

Person, 36, has been talking about retiring but the Lakers are expected to bring everyone else to camp. It has been a long summer for the defending NBA champions but, mercifully, it’ll be over soon.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE BIG DEAL

TO THE LAKERS

Horace Grant, F, 6-10, 245 (Sea.)

Chuck Person, F, 6-8, 241 (Sea.)

Greg Foster, C, 6-11, 250 (Sea.)

Emanual Davis, G, 6-5, 195 (Sea.)

*

TO NEW YORK

Glen Rice, F, 6-8, 220 (L.A)

Travis Knight, F-C, 7-0, 235 (L.A.)

Vladimir Stepania, C, 7-0, 236 (Sea.)

Lazaro Borrell, F, 6-8, 220 (Sea.)

Vernon Maxwell, F, 6-4, 190 (Sea.)

Luc Longley, C, 7-2, 260 (Pho.)

* Also, four draft picks

*

TO SEATTLE

Patrick Ewing, C, 7-0, 255 (N.Y.)

Fifteen-year veteran is in the final year of a contract that will pay him $14 million this season.

*

TO PHOENIX

Chris Dudley, C, 6-11, 260 (N.Y.)

Mostly a backup with Knicks, he almost became a Laker in the trade’s original form weeks ago.

* Also, one draft pick

The New-Look Lakers

WHO’S BACK

Shaquille O’Neal, 7-1 315, 8 sea.

Kobe Bryant, 6-7 210, 4 seasons

Rick Fox, 6-7 242, 9 seasons

Robert Horry, 6-10 235, 8 seasons

Ron Harper, 6-6 215, 14 seasons

John Celestand, 6-4 178, 1 season

Derek Fisher, 6-1 200, 4 seasons

Devean George, 6-8 220, 1 season

Tyronn Lue, 6-0 175, 2 seasons

*

WHO’S GONE

A.C. Green, 6-9 225, 15 seasons

Glen Rice, 6-8 220, 11 seasons

Travis Knight, 7-0 235, 4 seasons

*

WHO’S NEW

Horace Grant, 6-10 245, 13 sea.

Isaiah Rider, 6-5 215, 6 seasons

Greg Foster, 6-11 250, 10 seasons

Mark Madsen, 6-9 240, rookie

Andy Panko, 6-9 230, rookie

Chuck Person, 6-8 241, 13 seasons

Emanual Davis, 6-5 195, 3 seasons

Corey Hightower, 6-8 200, rookie

*

UNDETERMINED

John Salley, 6-11 255, 11 seasons

Brian Shaw, 6-6 200, 11 seasons