LAKERS NOTEBOOK: THINGS GET CHIPPY BETWEEN JACKSON, WEBBER'S AGENT.

Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer

Even if Chris Webber never ends up with the Lakers, the back-and-forth between agent Aaron Goodwin, coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak has become a compelling subplot to the saga.

Goodwin took exception to Jackson's comments that he wasn't returning calls, especially Jackson's digs that Goodwin has ``only one ear that can work'' and a single cell phone when ``in this day and age, most all these agents have three of them.''

Goodwin fired back with an e-mail Saturday referring to Jackson as ``Sir Phil,'' saying he and Kupchak had talked at length Thursday afternoon and he tried to get in touch again Saturday morning.

``Nothing will be decided until after Chris has spoken with coach Jackson,'' Goodwin wrote, ``and I have already reached out to Mitch this a.m.''

Goodwin said Webber had spoken Saturday with Kupchak but had yet to talk with Jackson as of 5 p.m.

All Kupchak would say Saturday was there was ``no update'' on things.

The Detroit Pistons have been expected to sign Webber ever since his contract was bought out and he was released by Philadelphia on Thursday.

After talking to Kupchak on Thursday, Goodwin wrote, ``Mitch then needed to talk to Sir Phil to see where he stood on the situation. We agreed to speak sometime Friday afternoon, after he had talked to coach Jackson.''

Kupchak called at 3:45 p.m., but Goodwin said he was on a flight to watch one of his clients, Miami guard Gary Payton, play in what could have been the last game of his career in his hometown of Oakland.

``Obviously, I didn't think Phil's quote, given the nature of this situation, was humorous,'' Goodwin wrote. ``Mitch should have alerted him of not only the fact that we had talked, but also that the communication process had started long before Friday afternoon.''

Goodwin is one of the NBA's most prominent agents, representing Webber, Payton, Dwight Howard, Jamal Crawford among others.

Second chance: Kobe Bryant said the Lakers weren't looking ahead to Monday's nationally televised game against the Heat as a chance to avenge their Christmas Day letdown in Miami.

``The mentality that we have to try to get into is the fact that we're playing to get better,'' Bryant said. ``We're not playing for a win on Friday night. We're not playing for a win on Monday night.

``We're playing to improve, so when playoff time comes around, we're ready. It's not necessarily who we're playing against, but it's more just improving for that time.''

Heart-felt: After the Lakers' shootaround Friday, forward Ronny Turiaf met for a half-hour with 16-year-old Garylee Zuniga of Aztec, N.M. Zuniga suffers from a serious heart defect; Turiaf underwent surgery in July 2005 to repair an enlarged aortic root.

``For me, it was such a pleasure sharing my story with a kid like that because he's looking up to us as NBA players,'' Turiaf said. ``For me to help him out, to just relieve some pressure and some sadness out of him, was a definite pleasure for me.''

Turiaf also didn't hesitate in giving Zuniga his phone number. The NBA coordinated the trip as part of its Shoot for Hope program.

``When you go through something like that, you've got to have somebody to talk to,'' Turiaf said. ``It was the same thing with me and (former Minnesota guard) Fred Hoiberg. If I didn't have him, it would have been so tough for me to go through it on a daily basis.''

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