LAKERS NOTEBOOK: BRYANT, ODOM COULD BE FACING LONG SUMMERS.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

PHOENIX - With Kobe Bryant on board to play for the 2008 Olympic team and Lamar Odom hopeful of also making the trip to Beijing, the Lakers could have their two top players committed to playing each of the next three summers.

Odom met with Phoenix Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo, the managing director of USA Basketball's men's senior national team, after Friday's shootaround, and Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he agreed a summer program was necessary.

``It's a big commitment, there's no doubt about it,'' Jackson said. ``They've done the right thing, I think, by making the players commit to giving a couple years to the national team so that they can build a connected unit when they play overseas or in these international tournaments.''

The U.S. team will gather at a training camp this summer in Las Vegas and play exhibition games leading up to the world championships in Japan. Another training camp would be held in the summer 2007 and again before the 2008 Olympics.

But Jackson said he was concerned about the wear and tear Bryant and other players could face, likening it to the long playoff runs his Chicago Bulls players went through in the 1990s that Jackson believed took years off their career.

Jackson equated the Olympic program with possibly shortening a player's career by a year. Bryant has played more games by age 27 than any player in NBA history, plus another 119 playoff games in his career.

``It's a daunting thing,'' Jackson said, ``and it wears on players and we have to face the fact with our players that we're going to cut them short a little bit.''

Odom, who played for the U.S.'s bronze-medal winning team in Athens, met with Colangelo for about 15 minutes Friday and said things went well.

``We didn't really talk about playing, just about what he expects from the guys who do come,'' Odom said. ``We talked about the last time I went. I told him how cool it was, how I'd like to go again.''

Said Bryant, who gave an emphatic nod to joining the U.S. team after meeting with Colangelo on Friday: ``We as Americans, we respond so much to challenges, and this is a challenge. We're so used to being at the top of the sport for so many years and now that we're not up there, we have a clear challenge ahead of ourselves.''

--No fault: Jackson avoided criticizing Odom for the charging foul he committed with 22 seconds left Thursday against Sacramento, the biggest of several mistakes down the stretch that cost the Lakers a five-point lead and ultimately the game.

``He's still relatively young as a player - I know he's been in a lot of NBA games - but he's still relatively young and there's hope that he can learn from it,'' Jackson said of Odom. ``We're trying to keep this as a learning phase.''