Lakers Won’t Delay Ceremony

The Lakers will hold their championship ring and banner ceremony on opening night, Oct. 30, the club announced Friday.

The NBA had hoped the Lakers would delay the ceremony for three days, until the club’s second home game, believing the celebration would too sharply contrast the gravity of the league-wide tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Commissioner David Stern will attend opening-night ceremonies in New York and New Jersey, and therefore will not hand out the Lakers’ rings. Deputy commissioner Russ Granik probably will stand in for Stern, according to a league official.

In a written statement, Laker owner Jerry Buss said he considered the league’s wishes before his decision.

“After several discussions, both with the league office and internally, as well as consultations with people outside the organization, we recognize reasons for both moving the date and maintaining it,� Buss said in the statement. “However, our feeling is that the reasons to hold our ceremony on opening night, along with our tribute of the Sept. 11 tragedies, are more compelling than those to postpone it.�

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Forward Mark Madsen, who had surgery July 3 for a torn ligament in his left wrist, has been cleared to practice Wednesday.

Madsen was examined Friday by Dr. Norman Zemel, who performed the surgery. Zemel found Madsen to be ahead of the normal healing schedule. It is unknown if Madsen will be ready by opening night.

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As a gym emptied at the end of a day of training camp, as their teammates rolled silver and black Mercedes out of the parking lot, Samaki Walker and Jelani McCoy took passes from Laker assistant Jim Cleamons and shot 15-foot jumpers.

It was Friday afternoon, with two-a-days planned through the weekend, and the Laker power-forward candidates went to the elbows of the lane, where Horace Grant rarely missed, and pushed shots to the rim.

Not far off, sitting on a wooden box against a cinder-block wall, Coach Phil Jackson assessed what he had seen so far, two days into camp. “I’m a little concerned about my power-forward condition right now, to be honest,� he said. “Samaki, Jelani, Dickey [Simpkins], Robert [Horry], all that combination of guys.�

Slava Medvedenko apparently will be the backup center, leaving the power forward position less deep. Horry, Jackson said, apparently will be the starter, even though the coach had hoped Walker would come in and take that role.

“Jelani and Samaki are both going to have to learn,� Jackson said. “They’ve done pretty well at the center spot, but I’m forcing them into the wing spot, where they’re going to spend a lot of minutes if they want to help us in key situations.�

Playing time beyond Horry has yet to be decided.

“I just have to have the best players, whoever wants to win that position,� Jackson said. “Right now Robert’s the one that’s playing, who knows how to play. Then we’ll see where the minutes fall.�

The first cuts are expected this weekend, perhaps as early as today. Jackson announced that news to his players at Thursday’s practice. Dennis Scott, 33 and a veteran of 10 NBA seasons, acknowledged that his stomach twisted a little when he heard.

“I won’t lie,� Scott said with a tight grin.

It hasn’t been a bad camp for Scott, who still doesn’t miss many jumpers, despite being out of the league last season. He is injury-free, he said, and, if nothing else, has proved to himself that he can play in the NBA again, somewhere, if not here.

“That’s the reality of the business,� he said. “You have to be truthful to yourself.�

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Shaquille O’Neal practiced without difficulty Friday. It was his second practice since returning from toe surgery.

O’Neal expects to practice once today and once Sunday, while the team runs two-a-days. And Jackson said he’d play O’Neal in Tuesday’s exhibition game against the Golden State Warriors.