There's also no getting around the coalescing of the team upon the midseason trade that brought Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies, largely because it elevated forward Lamar Odom to another level of play.

They will be the main stories as the Lakers meet the San Antonio Spurs in the conference finals for the first time since 2004.

But if you really push coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak into a corner to say when the reconstruction of this season's team began, it had to be July 19 — just 12 days after the Utah Jazz compassionately released Derek Fisher from his contract. Fisher needed to relocate to a city that had the kind of medical facilities to help his infant daughter Tatum's bout with retinoblastoma — a tumor in her left eye. When Fisher spun the medical dial, Los Angeles was it, and he re-signed with the Lakers after a three-year absence.

There was never any question about Derek Fisher, the person, who after serving a term as a vice president for the National Basketball Players Association is now in his second year as president. The 24th overall pick in the first round of the 1996 draft out of Arkansas-Little Rock by the Lakers, he was a 6-1, 200-pound rock of a point guard for the first eight years of his career — either starting or coming off the bench for the Lakers.

He was unmistakably a key component in the three-year run of championships from 2000-02 as the buffer in the constantly strained relationship between Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, as well as a tough on-the-ball defender and clutch shooter. The most vivid memory is Fisher's controversial buzzer-beater on an inbounds pass with .4 of a second left to steal Game 5 in San Antonio, turning around the 2004 conference semifinals. It was a temporary salve for the Lakers' problems. Two series later, everything came apart in their Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons. With fingers pointing in every direction, Fisher opted to go the free-agency route, signing a six-year, $37 million contract with the Golden State Warriors.

Two years into that deal, however, he was dealt to Utah and last season the nightmare struck Fisher, his wife Nicole and Tatum, their fourth child. It spoke volumes of Jazz owner Larry Miller and coach Jerry Sloan that they let Fisher go last summer. And it's not without more than a slight tinge of irony that the 33-year-old Fisher was exceptional in the Lakers' six-game series win over the Jazz that ended Friday in Salt Lake City.

That's jumping way too far ahead, though. Fisher's impact on the Lakers began once basketball resumed in the fall and Bryant had been begging for a trade, while in the process trashing his teammates. Fisher was the one player that gave the team ballast with his integrity on and off the floor. He was the only guy — outside of Jackson — who could actually get through to Bryant, whose desire to win and ego had him spinning out of control. That it would be a respectful veteran teammate and not somebody in management, made it that much more vital to Bryant and team chemistry.

It was particularly significant for young 7-footer Andrew Bynum, the 20-year-old center who suffered the brunt of Bryant's attacks because Kupchak was unable to honor Bryant's demand to acquire an elite player such as Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd or Jermaine O'Neal. Undaunted, Fisher helped settle everybody down, Jackson got them all on the same page and they quickly began to win at a surprising rate. Suddenly, the bench that nobody believed in was among the most effective in the league. Bynum became an automatic double-double player, blocking shots in the process, and a growing physical presence at both ends of the floor as opposed to empty numbers.

Meanwhile, it helped Bryant make the transformation from selfish super-talent into MVP-worthy by leading his teammates to a championship-caliber level. The final move was to add Gasol without dealing anybody from the core, although Bynum had already gone down with a season-ending knee injury. Despite losing Bynum, they hung in through the amazing race in the West to earn the top seed with 57 wins — the most for the Lakers since 2002 and not coincidentally their last NBA title.

Blowing through the disjointed Denver Nuggets in the first round was no surprise, but playing the Jazz in the second round figured to be a different story. The physical Jazz would beat up on Bryant whenever he would enter the lane. They would outmuscle Gasol. Consequently, a lot more of the scoring load would be foisted on Odom than he was accustomed to handling.

That's where Fisher, who has averaged 8.6 points during his career in the postseason, came into play. There had been big playoffs for him before. In 2001, he averaged 13.4 points a game and blistered the San Antonio Spurs in the conference finals by making 15-of-20 from 3-point range. In 2003, he averaged 12.8 points and shot 52 percent from the field and a stunning 61.7 percent from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the shot in San Antonio in 2004 has become classic YouTube fodder.

Still, it was hard to fathom what he could bring five years later and his 34th birthday coming in August. Not only did his minutes go up from the 27.4 of the regular season to 35.2 against his former teammates, but he averaged 14.2 points and 3.5 steals — shooting .571 from the field on 24-of-42 shooting, including 11-of-17 3-point attempts — a searing .647 for the series. For all of Bryant's heroics despite a bad back, Odom's amazing versatility and Gasol's productive numbers, Fisher was the calming dagger amid the chaos, time and again.

Through the good karma of doing the right thing for his family, Fisher proved you can go home again. His talent notwithstanding, it is his mental approach as much as his physical presence that has made the Lakers and Bryant whole again.

Without Derek Fisher, they would not be in the conference finals. And in one of those strange twists of fate that life often throws out there, Larry Miller, Jerry Sloan and the Utah Jazz deserve many thanks.