Phil Jackson was asked about Isaiah Rider's future with the Los Angeles Lakers the other day and turned that seemingly innocuous (not to mention entirely rhetorical) inquiry into a stream-of-whack-job rant about wanting both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal back for 2001-02.

	While Isaiah sits, we wait for an answer.

Now four questions immediately grow from this carefully constructed compost heap.

1. We asked about Rider, Phil. You know, the guy who's sort of around and sort of not. What's up with him?

2. Since you brought up Kobe, what was all that "sabotage" stuff about then?

3. Do you really think we believe that no other team would be interested in Bryant, even at his most post-teenaged and petulant?

4. Why didn't you ever get to the Rider stuff?

You see, after days of hard-earned Bryant rips from the Laker coach, in which he seemed to have made it clear that Bryant ranked nearer to Rider than O'Neal in his estimation, he suddenly declared that he wants both of the combatants back.

This is, of course, nuts. Unless Bryant and O'Neal have been putting us on all this time, it seems clear that they hate each other enough to ruin the team around them to make their points. Jackson's comments indicate that, forced to choose without interference/input from Jerry Buss, Mitch Kupchak, Jerry West or for all we know, Mark Landsberger, he would take O'Neal in an amphetamined heartbeat.

But never mind any of that. We want to know about Rider, damn it. Bryant and O'Neal will take of themselves, doubtless with ball bats in the locker room after the Lakers' last game.

Isaiah, on the other hand, is something else. In fact, he is something other than else. This is, after all, the man who said just last Friday after playing only three minutes, "If I wasn't going to play, I could have gone to the Heat."

Yes, but if he wasn't going to play, why would the Heat want him?

But we digress. Isaiah Rider is a singular figure in the modern NBA, and we all have discussed him at length over the years. His talent, his jump shot, his bad luck with over-officious cops and under-officious alarm clocks. There is, frankly, nobody like Rider anywhere on the planet.

And besides, Phil's the guy who thought he was a good idea to begin with. So why is he ducking the question?

Is he trying to move past the Rider Era without involving himself in the matter of culpability? Is he trying not to acknowledge that even the force of his irresistible personality was not enough to show Rider religion? Is he trying to face up, albeit sideways, to the idea that Dennis Rodman was an easier nut to crack than the Artist Formerly Known As J.R.?

Inquiring minds with absolutely nothing else to distract them (Family? Job? Farm?) want to know.

You see, Jackson has made his reputation as a shaman the way all great coaches do -- with a significant boost on the backs of his best players. I mean, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal on the roster beat a 10-day suspension every time.

But true greatness, the test of a man's true worth if you must, comes in doing the undoable, in cheating the laws of physics, math and the behavioral sciences to achieve the ultimate goal.

And it is the officially mandated position of this corner of the Internet, of ESPN.com, ESPN, the Disney Corporation and of Mickey Mouse His Own Exalted Self that Phil Jackson has accomplished nothing until he can make Isaiah Rider all he can be.

Which is why we are sick to death of Shaq/Kobe, Kobe/Shaq and all points between. If Phil Jackson wants to be known as the Brainiac 5 of basketball, he has to do another year of Rider, and nothing short of that will do.

Anyone, after all, can win a championship. They give championships out in everything from aardvark training to zither repair, and in different height, weight and style classifications. You can't swing a dead cat without knocking a trophy off someone's mantle. We are, frankly, flush with winners, and the hardware to prove it.

But Isaiah Riders come along only once every 40 years or so, and their taming is the greatest test in sports. Surely there is a book that Phil can find that can reach even Rider's soul.

So, Phil, what about our guy? Is he is, or is he ain't, your baby? We're almost entitled to know.

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle is a regular contributor to ESPN.com