Lakers' Isaiah Rider has tarnished past

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Isaiah Rider grew up thinking of himself as a winner. To this kid from Oakland, that meant rooting for UNLV and the Lakers.

They were winners. He wanted to be a winner.

It took Rider two junior college stops before he made it to UNLV for Jerry Tarkanian's final season there, and Rider played like a winner - pouring in 20.7 points per game. The next year, Rider did all he could to recapture the Runnin' Rebels' glory, ranking second in the nation in scoring (29.1 ppg) and making second-team All-America. Rider had dreamed of playing for UNLV, and he seemed at peace in making his dream come true.

Now, Rider has finally made it to the Lakers, his other dream team. Again, it has been a rocky road. Rider, 29, arrives with so much baggage - convictions for marijuana use and assault, spitting at people, chronic tardiness - that it seems a toss-up whether Rider's athletic gifts will lift up the defending champion Lakers or his volatility will drag them down. Although many who have seen his act before are sure this coin flip will come out tails again for Rider, the Lakers believe he will finally be heads-up.

"He's a willing person who wants to turn things around in his corner," Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. "He really wants to make a favorable impression again in this league, and we think that's a good attitude to have. If he has got that kind of attitude, he's going to help us in a lot of ways."

Rider's nickname, "J.R.," comes from "Junior." On so many levels, Rider is still a little boy, the kid who wants to be a winner. And that's why he wants to be here.

He was lurking about even during the NBA Finals, in town to see the Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley fight and soak in the Lakers' championship energy. He didn't know then that the Lakers would offer him a job - albeit a minimum-salary one - and so he is both surprised and honored to wear the purple and gold. He even turned down nearly three times as much money to play for another contender in party town Miami, showing just how deep his wish runs to play for the Lakers runs.

And so the Lakers are starting to depend on him. Rider won't be asked to score as much as he did at UNLV, but he is needed. Rider in the backcourt will enable this season's great experiment - Kobe Bryant shifting from guard to wing - to move forward.

But even though Rider played well for UNLV, he let them down, too. Even though it was his dream to play for the Rebels, Rider missed his final UNLV game.

Vicki Bertolino, a Community College of Southern Nevada instructor, was skeptical whether Rider had done his own work in a summer English correspondence course that allowed him to remain eligible. Although a later independent study determined that Rider was capable of the level of work that was turned in, Bertolino pointed out that some papers appeared to be in different handwriting - and his given name was misspelled as "Isiah" on three assignments.

Rider didn't encounter any problems - only public scorn - for another class he took to stay eligible, "Prevention and Management of Premenstrual Syndrome." UNLV suspended Rider before playing USC in the NIT. Without him, the Rebels lost at home, 90-74.

Blazing a trail

Although he definitely never dreamed of playing for the Trail Blazers, Rider likes to point to his days in Portland as an example of how good things can be with the Lakers.

"I was cool in Portland; it was a good situation," Rider said. "I was happy, we were winning - that's all I ever wanted. Minnesota and Atlanta weren't too sweet, but here I am on another good team, so I expect good things to happen once again."

This is in keeping with Rider's image of himself as a winner. He likened himself to Willis Reed after shaking off a knee injury to lift the Blazers to victory in a playoff game against Phoenix in 1999.

Of course, Rider's Portland days were not without incident. He was the driving force behind the team nickname being skewed into "Jail Blazers" or "Bail Blazers." His erratic behavior caused him to miss 12 games to suspension in three seasons.

When a fan in Detroit got on him too hard, Rider spat at him. Upset at being removed from another game, Rider yelled at his coach and walked off the floor, waving to his girlfriend in the stands on his way out. He went up into the stands during another game.

He also had these kind words for the folks in the Great Northwest: "We can go 40 miles down the road, and they're probably still hanging people from trees."

Yet Rider led the Blazers in scoring two of the three years he played there. The coach he hassled most of that time, Mike Dunleavy, is wary of how good the Lakers could be with Rider.

"The Lakers lost Glen Rice and added J.R., who has the overall talent to do more things," Dunleavy said. "J.R. is not as good an outside shooter as Glen, but he's good enough. If J.R. has his head together and doesn't disrupt things, he is going to be a good fit down there."

There was no "if" attached to Dunleavy's comments about Horace Grant, the Lakers' new power forward, however: "The Lakers' weak spot was power forward. Horace is a strong addition, a guy who defends well at his position and can make open shots. . . . I think they moved themselves right back into position. I think the Lakers are the front-runners again, honestly."

But ESPN The Magazine isn't in town to do a story on Grant. It's public perception that Rider can be the Lakers' third star - and it's Rider's perception, too.

"It's time for me work on my game, work on my conditioning and be that third person that I know they need," Rider said.

Is past prologue?

Rider doesn't like people dredging up the past. His view of it is a little different than some people's anyway.

He said upon signing with the Lakers in late August that the things he did in the past only hurt himself, not others - basically dismissing his teammates' feelings of being let down and apparently forgetting the 1994 incident when he kicked a pregnant woman in the back.

He blew off a paid appearance at a Minnesota sports bar because "it was my birthday." The bar managers called and badgered him, so he stormed to the bar in a rage and wound up convicted for assaulting the pregnant bar manager.

The Lakers don't like dredging up the past, because they believe they have a support system for Rider to prevent the past from repeating itself.

The present is just two weeks old. It includes Rider parking his Bentley in Kings hockey coach Andy Murray's space at the practice facility the Kings and Lakers share, ignoring an orange cone with a piece of paper with Murray's name on it. It includes Rider wildly and continuously swinging his elbows after recovering a ball he had lost in the preseason opener. It includes Rider already being late to practice, being called on it by Jackson and offering a Rodman-esque excuse about being ready to play except his shoes were untied.

Rider isn't in great shape despite Jackson requesting he lose five to 10 pounds over the summer. Although listed at 215, Rider came in at 232; he's down to 225 now. Rider isn't sharp basketball-wise, because he hardly played over the summer because he feared getting hurt and losing out on the money coming to him once he signed somewhere.

And Rider isn't thrilled that Jackson hasn't immediately put him in the starting lineup.

"Given the playing time, I'll be fine," Rider said. "Whatever (Jackson) feels. I'm not worried about anyone in front of me. Period."

Yet nothing has happened truly problematic. And Rider has shown flashes of the skill that everyone thought he had.

"He's going to benefit the team, because he automatically brings power and speed to the team," Bryant said. "Obviously, he can score the basketball. I think he's an underrated defensive player; I think he's going to flourish here in that department."

If he's simply moody and occasionally tardy, Rider won't be any great distraction. Rice was moody and frequently the last player to arrive at Staples Center, muttering about the traffic.

Rider is living in Culver City because it's about halfway between Staples and the Lakers' practice facility in El Segundo, and he vows he will improve his time management. The Lakers believe that unlike Dennis Rodman, who was about to turn 37 before being waived, Rider is growing up at age 29.

They are banking on team leaders such as Shaquille O'Neal, Ron Harper and Brian Shaw making sure Rider fits in. The common thread in Rider's checkered past, according to Jackson, is a basic inability to deal with authority; one of Jackson's strengths, however, is achieving mutual respect with each of his players. If Rider is really a winner, this is the environment for him to show it.

O'Neal is determined to be supportive after Rider left Atlanta last season believing his Hawks teammates - including team leader Dikembe Mutombo - turned him in to the NBA for smoking pot. O'Neal called Rider shortly after he signed.

"I asked him if everything was OK, to make sure he had a place to stay, make sure he had cars, make sure he had money - and make sure his deal was the way he wanted it to be," O'Neal said. "He said everything was all right. I wasn't calling him to talk about what went on in Atlanta and all that. But that's not going to happen here - because I'm not Dikembe. I'm me."

Who is Isaiah Rider, though? He might have fashioned himself a winner all these years, but he has never won.

He won't ever have as good a chance as he has now.

And the scary thing for the Lakers is how much they're allowing themselves to believe he will help them win, not hurt them.

"How fun would that be to have him on the All-Star team," Laker owner Jerry Buss said, "after picking him up for free?"