Michael Jordan handled the scoring load, Horace Grant and later Dennis Rodman got the rebounds, and Scottie Pippen did a little bit of everything as the Chicago Bulls dominated the NBA in the 1990s.

The Bulls won six championships despite a nondescript group of centers that included Bill Cartwright, Luc Longley, Will Perdue and Bill Wennington doing much of the dirty work.

Phil Jackson finds himself with a similar group of anonymous big men entering this season with the Los Angeles Lakers in Chris Mihm, Kwame Brown and Andrew Bynum. He's counting on them to contribute far more than they did during the past two seasons.

"What Phil had in Chicago, those guys were veterans, big bodies," said Kobe Bryant yesterday at the Lakers camp at the 'Iolani School gym in Hawai'i. "They had a lot of experience. Our guys are still young, it will take some learning, learn on the fly. The learning curve has to be sped up."

When asked if the Lakers had what it takes to contend for a championship, Jackson put the onus on his big men, saying: "I don't know. We'll have to be awfully good in the middle. We've got two guys who were injured and one guy who was a novice. They have to be real effective for us."

Jackson said all three will probably get a chance to play early in the season.

"We always had three centers in Chicago," Jackson said. "They plugged the middle, boxed guys out so Rodman could rebound."