By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

More bad news from the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant has now been ruled unfit for selling chicken McNuggets.

McDonald's just pulled the plug on Bryant's endorsements, preferring one of its commercial spokesmen not be seen so often in the company of lawyers. It is another serving of consequences for his actions. Supersized.

Meanwhile, Bryant still has a bad shoulder. And Shaquille O'Neal still has a sore calf. And Karl Malone still has a bum knee.

You can't swing a Laker Girl pom-pom around the trainer's room at the moment without hitting a future Hall of Famer. No wonder they're having trouble beating the Clippers.

Now, it is a given the NBA is not on everyone's radar screen in mid-January. Check back at Easter. But we bring up all this to remind you that some sport conglomerates - Yankees, Cowboys, etc. - can entertain any time of year. The Lakers are one of them, and seldom need a district attorney to do it.

The Lakers are in severe pain, and a notable slump. The next six weeks, laden with road games against heavy lifters, will be a lookout for any acute signs of anxiety, strife or, possibly, implosion.

Phil Jackson has won nine championships, in various degrees of cerebral mellowness, with and without either his beard or Michael Jordan. It seems a little late in the game to hand him a test to find out if he can coach.

He can, obviously. But it will be interesting to see how he tries to drive his passengers through this current squall.

He has a lineup filling the team doctor's waiting room. A hurting superstar with another court date pending in Colorado. A moody locker room that can be a psychological crossword puzzle.

He is surrounded by a conference of sworn enemies, whom he must now try to beat with Jamal Sampson and Slava Medvedenko. He goes to each fresh duel packing water pistols. His defense is showing gaps.

In the meantime, the Lakers have become reliable road kill. They have not won an away game since Dec. 4 - allowing more than 100 points in all seven since - and have dropped their last three by 20, 22 and 16. They have more questions to answer about their recent performance than Howard Dean.

That might not mean much, except 17 of their next 22 games are on the road. By the time they walk out of that forest in early March, they could need binoculars to spot the Sacramento Kings ahead of them.

This was, of course, supposed to be something different. Bryant and O'Neal were scheduled to team with incoming graybeards Gary Payton and Malone for a barnstorming tour of NBA legends.

No record would be safe. No feat would be too tall. The rest of the league would shake and tremble.

Maybe, in the end, it still will. The Lakers have napped through parts of other regular seasons, and then ridden in parades in the summer.

But a lot has to be healed, fixed or forgotten. Phoenix has the worst record in the Western Conference. The Lakers just lost to them. At home.

Jackson won his 800th game as an NBA coach the other day. But his job may be as complex and delicate as it's ever been. There is O'Neal's calf and eggshell ego to massage, Malone and Payton to mesh, the shrapnel from the Bryant case to manage. And everyone to get healthy, or at least usable.

Jackson has his meditative hands full. So many famous Laker faces, and how often can you flip on the television these days and see them? Not often. Unless you're tuned to Court TV.