RODMAN ALREADY HAS BEEN SIDESHOW.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Man to man if not face to face or in so many words, Derek Harper sent a message Saturday to Dennis Rodman, the NBA's leading free agent and free spirit:

Don't join the young Lakers if you're the same old Dennis.

Of course Harper, applying his Illinois psychology degree, didn't put it quite that bluntly, knowing Rodman takes unkindly to orders.

``I think he's going to shock the world. I think he's going to come here and set an example for this young basketball team,'' said Harper, who at 37 is five months older than Rodman and seven years older than any other Laker. ``I think he's tired of being a distraction.''

In that clever statement to reporters keeping a Rodman watch at the Lakers' Southwest Los Angeles College practice gym, Harper probably wasn't saying what he truly expects to happen if the team signs the NBA's top rebounder and freakiest personality. Instead he was laying down lofty new expectations for Rodman.

``Trying my best to,'' Harper admitted with a hopeful smile after the crowd went off to listen to Del Harris.

Trying is the best anybody can do with Rodman.

Up to now, the party line among Lakers questioned about Rodman has been, ``Dennis will be Dennis, a sideshow and a disciplinary time bomb, but we can handle it and in any case we could use the rebounds.''

They probably know better than anybody else whether they'd be distracted.

But Harper said something different. He's not sure his teammates can handle it.

``Any distraction,'' he said, ``is going to be cancer for this team.''

It's a distraction already if the Lakers choose to let it be one.

A newspaper report that Rodman has decided he's willing to join the Lakers for the veterans' minimum, which would be a $600,000 salary in the lockout-shortened NBA season, drew an unusually large crowd of reporters and minicams to the team's last practice before this afternoon's national-TV showdown with Eastern favorite Indiana at the Forum.

A Lakers management spokesman said nothing had been signed or agreed to.

Inside the gym, the name Dennis Rodman never came up, insisted Robert Horry, the Lakers power forward who might have the most to lose if Rodman signs.

``The only time we talk about it,'' Kobe Bryant said, ``is when we say, `Did you hear anything new?' ''

Outside the gym, they couldn't avoid talking about it, with everybody carrying a notebook or microphone seeking further speculation on the Worm.

``He might be doing this just to keep his name out there,'' Horry speculated wryly. ``That's not an annoyance as much as you asking us about him.''

It's one thing to put up with a circus atmosphere when you're enjoying the contributions of a teammate who led the league in rebounding seven years in a row, made the all-defensive team seven times and won five championships with Detroit and Chicago.

It's another thing to put up with a circus atmosphere when you're getting nothing in return.

As any Dodger could tell you after the Randy Johnson trade watch last summer, these things don't help a team that's trying to get its head straight.

Which describes the Lakers after an opening week that included encouraging wins over Houston and San Antonio and discouraging losses to Utah and Minnesota.

``We definitely need to be more focused as a basketball team,'' Harper said. ``Collectively, as a group, we have enough talent to win a championship.

``But talent isn't always the most important thing. Knowledge and been-there-done-that is what it's all about. All talent does is make you read your headlines and think you're better than you are.

``With all the expectations of being great, there's a price you've got to pay. You've got to be able to sacrifice for your basketball team. People always talk about the shots Michael Jordan made. Michael Jordan didn't always make the shot. He made the play sometimes. I remember two (NBA) finals where he made passes to John Paxson and Steve Kerr for (game-winning shots).

``What it's about for us is whether guys are willing to sacrifice a few ESPN highlights for themselves for the sake of the team.''

Harper, a point guard in his 16th NBA season, is on his fourth team in four years after choosing the Lakers over the Pacers for the promise of more playing time behind Derek Fisher than behind Mark Jackson. Although he has never won a title or made an All-Star team, Harper instantly became the voice of authority among Lakers players, and not just because of the self-confidence in his booming delivery.

Anybody who watched Harper pull 20-year-old Bryant aside after a couple of youthful indiscretions early in the Lakers' first exhibition game had to think, ``I never saw Nick Van Exel offer a teammate the benefit of his wisdom and experience!''

Shaquille O'Neal might be The Man in the Lakers locker room. But Harper is the adult.

``I think these kids are begging for leadership,'' he said Saturday.

To Harper that means setting a good example - showing up early for practice and staying late, etc.

He doesn't plan to serve as an outrider for the rambunctious Rodman, though.

``I'm not here to be the doctor for somebody, a counselor for somebody,'' Harper said. ``I'm here to win championships.

``It's Dennis's role to keep himself in line.''

Message delivered: Do it or don't bother showing up.

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) ``He might be doing this just to keep his name out there. That's not an annoyance as much as you asking us about him.''

- The Lakers' Robert Horry

on Dennis Rodman