Bryant returns to practice

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Kobe Bryant returned to practice after sitting out the previous three days, and coach Phil Jackson said he expects the disgruntled Los Angeles Lakers star to play in an exhibition game Thursday night.

"Yeah, we'll probably play him, get him out there," Jackson said after practice Wednesday. "He seemed all right, sure did."

The Lakers face Seattle in Bakersfield on Thursday night in the first of six exhibition games in nine days. They lost their first two exhibition games to Golden State last week in Honolulu.

Bryant hadn't practiced since Saturday because of a sore knee. He didn't speak with reporters Wednesday, but made his feelings clear a day earlier in his only formal interview since Lakers owner Jerry Buss stated he "would certainly listen" to trade offers for the two-time defending NBA scoring champion.

"One thing I said at training camp was that I didn't want this to be a distraction," Bryant said Tuesday. "It's our understanding not to bring up the situation and not talk about it. We just wanted to keep things quiet and go about our business. It kind of caught me off guard a little bit."

Bryant asked to be traded 4 1/2 months ago, then avoided speaking about the Lakers until the beginning of training camp Oct. 1, when he talked more positively, saying he was looking forward to the season.

It seemed the parties had put negative feelings behind them before Buss made his comments to three beat writers last week.

Jackson said it was essentially business as usual Wednesday, although Bryant wasn't involved in scrimmaging at the end of practice.

"He was extremely helpful with young players today, helping them with the offense," the coach said.

"It was good — he was out there smiling and looking good, helping guys," teammate Kwame Brown said. "He was out there working, hopefully that means he's going to play. We want him to play, we need him to play."

Brown said the Lakers haven't been distracted by the fact that Bryant missed practice the previous three days and his apparent differences with management.

"We didn't know what was going on. We thought it was his knees," Brown said. "Hopefully, they can handle that upstairs."