Laker rookies get head start

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

American Idol wasn't the only audition being held in Hawai'i yesterday.

Luke Walton, a rookie from Arizona, said the first day of training camp was "about teaching and learning." Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Yesterday was the opening day of the Lakers' 10-day training camp in Honolulu. Only players with fewer than four years of NBA experience were required to show up yesterday.

Veteran players — including stars Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Karl Malone — will report to camp Friday.

Because only the young players were in attendance yesterday, head coach Phil Jackson said: "Most of this is orientation, instruction, and mercy by the head coach on these young guys. So I didn't put them through too much pressure."

But for the seven rookies trying out for the team, practicing for the first time in the purple and gold jersey was unnerving at times.

"I would say it's more nervousness than pressure," said first-round draft pick Brian Cook. "Even though I'm a rookie, I've been playing this game all my life. That's not the hard part. The hard part is learning and picking up all the things we haven't seen before."

Only two or three rookies will likely make the final roster.

"There's definitely a sense of urgency to make the team," said rookie free agent Eric Chenowith.

If there is a pecking order among the rookies, Cook and Luke Walton would probably be at the top.

Cook, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Illinois, was the 24th pick of the first round in the 2003 NBA Draft. Walton, a 6-8 forward out of Arizona, was the third pick of the second round.

"Coming in as a rookie, you just want to be somewhere," Walton said. "Now when I get a chance to sit back and realize that I am in Southern California with the best franchise in the NBA, I want to take full advantage of it."

Both players participated with the Lakers' summer league team, and have been working out together in Southern California.

"You're expected to be in condition here," Walton said. "In the NCAA, our first day of practice was all running. Here, it was more about teaching and learning."

Practice, including a weightlifting session, lasted more than three hours yesterday. For many of the rookies, it was an introduction to the "triangle offense" run by Jackson and assistant coach Tex Winter.

"It went smoothly, but it was definitely confusing at times," Walton said. "There's so much stuff and terminology that's new to us. But if we want to be a part of this team we have to learn it, so you do what you can to get it down."

Cook said he liked the concept of the younger players reporting to camp four days before the veterans.

"It gives us a chance to learn and be a little more ready than we might be otherwise if everybody were here at the same time," he said.

The other rookies in camp this week are Koko Archibong, Maurice Carter, Stephane Pelle and Ime Udoka.

• Nice genes: Luke Walton is the son of Hall of Fame basketball center Bill Walton.

"He's given me advice my whole life," Luke said. "Now that I'm here (in the NBA), he said I'm going to have to learn as I go. He told me it's a great life; there's going to be right ways to go and wrong ways to go and to try and make the right decisions."

• Unhappy camper: Head coach Phil Jackson said he was not pleased with the NBA's new format of separate reporting dates for the younger players and veterans.

"It disjoints the team and makes people unequal in status and that's what I'm afraid of," he said. "A team is a group of individuals that come together to accomplish a goal and win a championship."

What's more, Jackson noted that several of the Lakers' veterans are actually newcomers to the Los Angeles franchise. Star players Karl Malone and Gary Payton, for example, will have only four days of practice this week before playing in an exhibition game against the Golden State Warriors next Tuesday and Wednesday.

• New Laker: Jackson said yesterday that Byron Russell has been invited to training camp this week.

Russell, a 6-7 guard/forward, averaged 4.5 points and 3.0 rebounds for Washington last season. Prior to that, he played nine seasons with the Utah Jazz.

• Media watch: Approximately 30 reporters attended yesterday's practice at the Stan Sheriff Center, including representatives from Chicago and New York.

Even more are expected on Friday, when Kobe Bryant is scheduled to appear. Bryant is facing sexual assault charges, and a preliminary hearing on the case is scheduled for Oct. 9 in Eagle, Colo.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.