Are Lakers Serious About the Future? Here’s a Test Case

HOUSTON â€”  The final scene in the Lakers’ season was a television close-up of Michael Cooper flat on his back on the Forum floor.

All around Cooper, Houston Rockets were leaping and hugging and dancing, celebrating their victory over the Lakers in the Western Conference playoff series.

Cooper could have been squished like a slow rabbit on a fast turnpike.

He escaped unharmed, physically at least. But now there’s a chance that the scene was Michael Cooper’s last as a Laker.

Before it gets to that, however, I’m sure the Laker front office would appreciate hearing my two words worth of advice: Keep Coop.

The Lakers are in trouble. Last season’s team of the ‘80s suddenly developed several holes that will require serious patching. But if the Laker front office is serious about letting Coop fly the coop, the team is in trouble.

Cooper is a free agent. The Lakers made him an offer last December. Take it or leave it, they told Cooper. He left it.

The Boston Celtics, by comparison, going into the NBA final, had gone to the trouble of signing the following would-have-been free agents: Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Scott Wedman and Greg Kite.

Could it be that the Celtic front office sees some value in having the players’ brains free of contract clutter going into the season’s time of crisis? Ah, but what do the Celtics know about winning?

Meanwhile, the Lakers have said publicly that they won’t make Cooper a new offer. They want him to get an offer from another team, then they’ll match it.

That isn’t showing Cooper much respect, but who says contract negotiating has to be nice?

At the same time, the Lakers seem to be launching a campaign to downgrade Cooper in an attempt to get him to sign at their terms.

I think the Lakers are trying to take advantage of Cooper’s own insecurity.

I think they are overlooking the flip side of Cooper’s personality--the cocky, even belligerent side that makes him No. 1 on Larry Bird’s list of NBA defensive players.

“I think they (Laker management) think I’m afraid to leave L.A.,� Cooper said. “I don’t want to leave, but if I have to go, I’m not afraid. I want to be a starter. I don’t understand if they don’t think I played well.�

Cooper really didn’t want to talk much about it. He hates reading about sports contract squabbles, especially when he is involved.

So do I. But this could go deeper than just the standard salary hassle.

For one thing, the Lakers of the Jerry Buss era--1979 to the present--have never lost a star player over money. Recently, however, General Manager Jerry West has been telling people that Buss has changed his free-spending ways. Some Lakers will be in for rude shocks when their contracts are up, West has said.

What gives? Is Buss in financial trouble? He denies that.

Or has he suddenly decided to become a fiscal role model for the other owners?

Whichever, will Cooper be the first victim of corporate belt-tightening?

Either the Lakers are downgrading Cooper in public and private as a negotiating ploy, or they really consider him expendable. If it’s the latter, they’re making a mistake.

Cooper is an original Buss-era Laker, having broken in the same season that Magic Johnson and Buss were rookies, ‘79-80. In the seven seasons since, the Lakers have been to the NBA final five times and have won the championship twice.

The Lakers’ primary weapon, the play that is their signature and their style, is the fast break. As Laker Coach Pat Riley and every other expert tells us, the key to the fast break is great defense. Great defense causes turnovers and missed shots, which result in fast breaks.

The Lakers’ best defensive player is Michael Cooper. Cooper is a pain. He studies you on film until he knows your strengths and weaknesses. Then he hacks you and karate-chops you, grabs and pulls, denies you the ball, hounds you, offers you the occasional elbow, sneers and woofs at you.

Also, Cooper often is involved in the other end of the fast break, the finishing end.

Aside from all that, Cooper gives the Lakers that little added dimension you might call heart, or toughness.

If the experts had to offer one word to sum up the fall of the Lakers this year, the word most often used might be soft .

Sports Illustrated used that exact word to describe the Lakers’ play in the series against the Rockets.

Cooper is not soft--except maybe when it comes to charity. He was voted the NBA’s 1986 citizen of the year, or whatever they call the guy who does the most nice things for charity. That would be irrelevant in this story, except that the Lakers, especially West, pride themselves on building the team around high-character players.

If I’m the Lakers, assuming I’m not suddenly stone broke, I call in Cooper’s agent, lock the door and slug it out until we reach an agreement. Then I inform Cooper that he will be the starting guard opposite Magic Johnson, at least until the All-Star break.

But maybe this is the beginning of the Lakers’ new era, when the old guys are expendable and everyone is replaceable. If so, I liked the old era better.