THE CHAIRMAN; BRYANT WORKS ON BASICS - AIDED BY THE FURNITURE.

Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer

If only chairs could speak, the world might get a hint of how much better Kobe Bryant will be this season.

The lockout-protracted offseason sent dozens of NBA players into college gyms and YMCAs for pickup games the last six months. Not Bryant.

After all, this is the kid who crafted his deadly one-on-one skills by playing against his own shadow growing up in Italy. And besides, as the presumed next Michael Jordan tries to emulate the original, he has picked up one of MJ's key strategies: Don't let the league see what you've got until you're ready to spring it on them.

So Bryant retreated to an unspecified high-school gym for daily drills, sometimes playing against his personal trainer or his cousin. Otherwise, it was just Kobe and a bunch of chairs posing as still-life Pippens and Paytons and Hardaways.

If the chairs could talk, they might reveal that, in solitude, Kobe Bryant - the king of one-on-one - made himself a better team player. Really.

``I didn't want to go to UCLA to play (pickup games) because I felt I needed to work on a lot of my fundamentals,'' the Lakers swingman says. ``I felt that if I went up there my competitive nature would get me in the habit of just going out there and playing, without really concentrating on the fundamentals.

``As far as playing playground basketball, I've got that in my game, I've been working on that for 15 years, so I really didn't need that.''

This season will be Bryant's third in the NBA, but he's still just 20 years old and still learning the lessons Jordan and others received in college. Bryant's classroom is his own mind, but he supplemented that this offseason by reading Dean Smith's book and using those drills in his private workouts.

``Basic stuff,'' Bryant says, ``that I really never concentrated on, like coming out on the wing, going to meet the ball, catching and planting with two feet, back-pivoting, posting up, getting your position, working your footwork.

``Plus, the mental aspect. I had a chance to get away from the game, try to think about everything. I watched a lot of film. I studied a lot of double teams and how to react to double teams.''

But the new, improved Kobe Bryant did give the world a small glimpse of what's to come, in the commercial. You know, the one where Kobe is frozen in mid-air, hovering near the hoop for 10 seconds, and you don't know what's more unrealistic - the hang time or the fact he passes up the dunk to pass to an open teammate.

It's more than just a sales job. Bryant's concentration on the fundamentals has meant learning to use his one-on-one skills to complement teammates as well, and it's showing. In the third training camp practice here, Bryant dribbled in from the wing, straight into a crowd a few feet outside the paint, jumped up . . . and dished the ball across the key to a wide-open Derek Harper for an easy jump shot.

The coaches applauded, with verve.

``It took Michael (Jordan) about three years to get to where he was playing the kind of team game that contributed to (the Bulls') ultimate success,'' Lakers coach Del Harrris notes. ``(Detroit's) Joe Dumars said, `When we saw Michael using his ability not only to score, but to get other people involved, we said it's all over.'

``This is what we would be looking for, for this to be a breakthrough year for Kobe to be an all-around offensive player.''

That seems to be Bryant's goal as well, driven as much by teamwork concepts as his own desire to be a dominant player. He knows he needs to diversify, as was evident in last season's struggles.

He was the league's best sixth man for the first half of the season, averaging 17.9 points and 45 percent shooting prior to the All-Star break. But then came the All-Star Game with its NBA-fueled hype, the media swarm, the constant comparisons to Jordan, and Bryant was worn down.

Other teams adjusted, attacking Bryant before he could beat them with his drives to the hoop. His scoring average dropped to 12.7 points per game in the second half of the season and his field-goal percentage plummeted to 39.6.

Now Bryant is trying to become more judicious with the drives, has worked diligently on his jump shot and is making the right decision more often.

``What I've noticed so far is a more controlled understanding of the game,'' says teammate Rick Fox. ``He seems to be selective. He's not going for the jugular at every opportunity. . . . He'll be a much better player this year than he was last year, just because of that ability to be under control and patient with his game and letting it come to him.''

And then there's those top-secret new moves he worked on during the lockout. Be forewarned.

``He worked on a variation of moves, things you may not even notice,'' says Bryant's cousin, Sharif Butler, his hoops partner since birth and workout partner in the offseason. ``They definitely gotta expect some new things with Kobe.''

Now it's just a matter of where Bryant will deliver those moves - from the starting lineup or off the bench, at guard or at forward. He says he's ready to start. Eddie Jones and Derek Fisher are entrenched in the backcourt, though, and the Lakers have options at small forward in Fox, Bryant and Robert Horry. But in this compacted 50-game season, with four to five games a week, there will be plenty of lineup shuffling to keep bodies fresh.

A starter? ``I better be,'' Bryant says with a laugh, but he's serious anyway. ``I think it's about time to get me in there and start building the team for the future.''

A future that will be spent, he says, entirely in Los Angeles. A free agent at season's end, he's not talking about contract extensions just yet, but the new labor deal guarantees Bryant more money to stay.

``I'm gonna be a Laker for life,'' he says.

And a headache for the rest of the league for years to come. The chairs, if they could speak, would say so.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Kobe Bryant got back to basics during the NBA lockout, working with a partner and several chairs on the court.

Kibry Lee/Special to the Daily News

(2) The Lakers' Kobe Bryant, left, won't have to worry about this anymore - being held back by Michael Jordan.

Edna Trunnell/Daily News