Winter, Rodman Reunite

During an ABA game Sunday at the Pyramid, Laker assistant Tex Winter left his seat to find a bathroom.

Instead, he found Dennis Rodman.

Winter and Rodman spent three seasons together in Chicago, Winter as the venerable basketball coach, Rodman as the out-there basketball player.

Six years later, Rodman was a forward for the Long Beach Jam, Winter was scouting for the Lakers, and one tug on the wrong door had brought them together again.

Winter said Monday he found Rodman alone and “near tears” in the locker room, distraught that he hadn’t played better in his second game with the Jam. He said he consoled Rodman, telling him he had expected too much after three years out of the game, and suggested maybe he’d be more capable in two or three weeks.

The conversation apparently inspired Rodman, or his handlers.

A press release issued by Rodman’s agency on Monday said that Winter “told Dennis that he needs another week or two to be able to play at the level he is used to playing and will need a few weeks before he is ready to play in the NBA again.”

It also said that Rodman’s agent, Darren Prince, believed “Rodman hopes to reunite with his former coach and current Lakers head coach Phil Jackson by the [All-Star break] this season.”

Winter said Monday that wasn’t exactly the message he’d conveyed to Rodman, who will be 43 in May.

“I’d like to help him from a human standpoint,” Winter said, “before a basketball one.”

Jackson said that he would not necessarily rule out signing Rodman, a sentiment called “kind” by another member of the organization.

“He’d have to demonstrate he was a player who’d recovered all of his skills,” Jackson said.

It is possible that by the time Rodman was feeling better about his game, assuming it ever reached an NBA level again, the Lakers would have Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox back on the floor.

“We’ll just keep an open eye,” Jackson said. “At this point we aren’t in any rush to make a commitment to that.”

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Jackson said he hoped to have Horace Grant back by Wednesday night in Memphis, but so far he’s only guessing.

The organization has not heard from Grant since Thursday morning, when he left to be with his father, Harvey, who is ill in Georgia.

“Horace who?” Jackson said with a smile.

“No, I haven’t heard from Horace,” he said. “[But] I have to trust Horace on this. If he was comfortable leaving his family, he’d certainly be here.”

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O’Neal, Malone and Bryant will accompany the team on all or parts of the upcoming trip through Memphis, Dallas and Utah.

Malone has homes in Arkansas, which borders Tennessee, and Salt Lake City, and so will use the trip to tend to business there. Bryant will attend his motions hearing in Eagle, Colo. on Friday, an off day for the Lakers, and meet the team in Utah, according to Jackson.

Bryant also has hearings scheduled for Feb. 2 and 3. The Lakers play in Indiana on Feb. 2 and are off the next day.

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The Lakers saw referee Steve Javie on Monday night for the first time since Dec. 12, the night Javie issued four technical fouls in the first quarter of a 110-93 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

Two of the technicals ejected Gary Payton in the first quarter. In all, Javie’s crew called the Lakers for five technicals and a flagrant foul.

When Javie was introduced among the three referees Monday, he was booed.