"I'm frustrated with my time," Cook said. "I started 46 games, played significant minutes last season. I'm just trying to get better. At the same time, we're on a roll right now. I love to win. I have to do what's best for the team. But if he calls on me, I'll be ready."
"He" would be Jackson, who acknowledged Cook's situation before Wednesday's game against New Orleans. "I'm looking for places to put Brian in the ballgame, but Ronny [Turiaf] is playing well coming off the bench in a big man's role," Jackson said. "He's frustrated about not playing, but … he knows that I'm looking for situations to put him in."

"I love fishing but I also love being out with the kids," Lakers forward Brian Cook said.

"It's somewhere that I'd love to be," said Cook, who will make $1.8 million this season. "We'll see how it goes."

"I don't think there's any doubt that Brian's an NBA player," Kupchak said. "He may be the best shooting guy his size in the NBA. There are some things he doesn't do as well as others, but I don't think there's any doubt in the last two to three years that he s established himself as being an NBA player with great size and a quick release with the ability to shoot the ball with range. And guys like that in this league are hard to come by."

"This is a big year for me," Cook said. "This is my contract year. I don't have no job yet. We've been trying to negotiate an extension at this point. I'm trying to be here for a while, but you know how the business is."

"If there's a deal that makes sense, then we'll get something done," Bartelstein said in a phone interview. "Brian wants to be there, and I'm sure the Lakers would like to have him there. So we'll see what happens over the rest of the month."

"I'm not into acting at all, but Kobe asked us to come, so we wanted to show some support," Cook explains of his invite, extended just hours ago after seeing Bryant at the Lakers' facility. "Plus, they say they'll pay me a little bit."

For Cook, it's also a rare opportunity to hoop. He shows off a puke-inducing scar from surgery to repair a compound fracture in his right thumb, suffered while playing ball at Sports Club L.A. against civilians. "We were down by four, so I had to start playing hard," Cook says, smiling while explaining how he popped his thumb on the backboard. "I'm sure the Lakers weren't happy, but I'll be ready for camp."

Then Cook takes a deadly serious tone. "Wait," he whispers, closely examining Bryant's mug. "Are you wearing makeup?"
More laughter. "Come on, man, don't mess around," Bryant laughs. "I'm sensitive."
"It's cool, something to keep the sweat off, I guess," says Cookie, who is sans makeup. "I guess only superstars get that treatment."
Then a makeup artist grabs Cookie for his turn in the makeup chair. Kobe can't resist. "OH, MAN!" Bryant bellows, ribbing at a far greater volume than Cookie dared. "YOU'RE WEARING MAKEUP? DAMN! MAKEUP?"
"He had to hit me up real loud so everyone hears," Cookie says with a laugh. "OK, I see what's up now."

"I've worked hard and last year I finally got some playing time to prove what I can do," Cook said. "This year we have a young team and I'm going to go out there and compete and play hard like I've always done. I think I just need time to do what I can do, and I feel like I can shoot the ball and play with anybody."

"I've always thought of myself as an opportunist," he said. "I just try to do what I can in a given situation. Whether it was while I was in Illinois or in the NBA, I try to make the best of what I can do. That's just the key to life, flipping negatives into positives. Things might not always happen how you want them, so you just work hard to get to where you want to be."

"It's getting better day-by-day," he said. "I'm doing rehab on it, getting flexibility and mobility in it. I can pick up a basketball now. If I had to play with it now, I'd play with it. I'm just trying to get as much rest as possible, while making sure my shot and handle is up to point."

"We always talked about doing a camp together when we got out of school," Cook said. "Basically it came together by us thinking of some things to do to give back to the community and the university. And we wanted to make it a reunion week for former Illini to come back. We had a lot of guys come back and some young guys helped out, too. It was a really good week, we had about 200 kids attend camp. We taught them the fundamentals - but taught them life skills more than anything. A lot of kids said it was the best camp they'd ever been to. We're going to try to make it bigger and better for next year and get some coaches involved. We want to make it a big central Illinois event."

"I love working with younger kids. I've always enjoyed that," he said. "My major was business and sports management, and a lot of my classes were how to run programs for kids. It's all paying off now with my first year of doing camps. It's a learning process, whenever you do a business or working with kids, with things you think you can do better. But everything went good this past year. So we have a starting point."

"Tell you the truth, it was basically the same thing as last year because I didn't know if (the Lakers) were going to pick up my option before the season," he said. "I think I proved that I can play and put up points in the NBA. I think I can be a steady force in the NBA, and this year is just proving that again. Like I've always told everybody, if I get time, I'll produce. It's my contract year and I'm playing for a job, and I'm talking with the Lakers now about an extension. They said they want to go through camp and see how I've improved in the summer before we do anything."

"I've been watching a lot of game tape and working out, trying to make my body stronger and quicker. I've lost a lot of weight and am down to about 242 or 243 (pounds) right now," said Cook, who was listed at 258 pounds last season. "I've learned I have to be able to run with these quicker guys. I'm watching film because I want to know how teams are playing me. Since I can shoot, they're going to run at me, so I'm working on being able to put the ball on the floor to be a playmaker, to get the ball to the open man. I'm also working on improving my defense, being a good team defender and drawing charges, grabbing rebounds."

"To be honest, I think he's a great asset to the team," Cook said. "We like shooters, and I think I was the only shooter who shot over 50 percent from the floor and over 40 percent from the 3-point line last year. (Radmanovic and I) had about the same numbers last season. I think he took the place of Devin George, who signed with Dallas.

"I think if we can get both of us out there we can spread the defense to give Kobe (Bryant) and Lamar (Odom) space to create and give Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown room to work down low. I think it'll be great for us. My goals and expectations have been the same," he said. "I want to one day play in the All-Star game, I want to win a championship. But it's a team game, and right now my role is to be a role player; rebound, play defense and hit open shots. That's what I've got to do to be on the floor, so that's what I've got to do."

“I’m really glad to be back with the Lakers,” said Cook, who was signed to a $1.8 million extension for the upcoming season. “I’m trying to do another extension and prolong my career there.”
“I love the triangle offense,” Cook said. “It suits my game real well for a passing big guy, a shooting big guy, a team player. It’s a great fit for me.

"I blocked the shot and the ball went out to half court," Cook said Tuesday. "My thumb pretty much did too."
"My spirits are high," Cook said. "They said I won't have any problems getting back. I'll be able to work on other stuff in my game. I can still work on my legs, get quicker, and I can work on my left hand. This is going to make me ambidextrous.

"I've got long arms," Cook said of his rebounds. "I've got no hops."
"I was just trying to leave it out there on the floor," Cook said. "I just wanted to give a good effort."

"It does hurt because we are in a playoff race so we can't let this get us down if we expect to be a championship team," Lakers forward Brian Cook said.
"Seattle really hurt us with their transition game," Cook said. "They got a lot of easy layups and it looked like we weren't getting back on defense."

"I don't think this loss is going to be too much of a setback," forward Brian Cook said. "But it does hurt, because we are in a playoff race. We cannot let this get us down."

"I am Brian Cook's mother. I've enjoyed the many columns you have written about my son, but could we drop the 'big, goofy kid from Lincoln' tag? Brian has grown to be a well-respected, hard-working, intelligent man." - Joyce Cook, Lincoln
NADEL: "Although Brian is the one who often refers to himself as a big, goofy kid, I promise to refrain from using such language in the future. I'm looking forward to watching his continued development in the NBA."

"We're getting immune to [Bryant's] heroics at times, [but] Cookie was the guy that really stepped in and made some really big shots that we didn't expect," Jackson said.
Said Cook: "It's hard to guard that pick-and-pop [play] with Kobe coming off of it. He's such a good shooter, and I can hit open shots also, so I'm just trying to do my job out there."

"We love Kobe when he's out there, but we all can play," teammate Brian Cook said. "We don't buy into that stuff about how we don't help Kobe out. We're all competitors and we're all professionals. That's why we're here."