EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? Monday was a time of relaxation for the champions-in-waiting. Unburdened by practice, the Los Angeles Lakers were as free as they’re going to be until after the final piece of confetti is swept from a palm-shaded avenue 3,000 miles to the west.

“It’s a much-needed rest from jet lag and … activities,” forward Rick Fox said.

Activities? What could a guy like Fox find to do in the metropolitan New York area?

First understand that Fox is a walking testament to the life-isn’t-fair conundrum. He’s rich, as famous as a basketball player can be on a team that features Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, has beachfront property in Southern California and, as an actor of some renown, gets to carry Ray Allen in the movies.

And did we mention he’s married to a former Miss America?

Vanessa Williams, appearing in the Broadway production of “Into the Woods,” has been married to Fox since the lockout season of 1998-99.

Theirs is a bicoastal relationship for most of the NBA season, with Williams’ job as an actress, singer and dancer keeping her in her native New York much of the year.

A Canadian by birth, a Hoosier in high school, a Tar Heel in college, a Bostonian for the first six years of his professional career and now a Marina del Ray kind of guy, Fox is searching for the type of roots cherished by his wife.

“She’s a New Yorker to the bone and she’s been trying to convert me,” he said. “It hasn’t been a hard sell. It’s a great city.”

The couple shares a summer home in Chappaqua, the chic New York suburb made famous (or infamous, depending on your politics) by the presence of Bill and Hillary Clinton. But Fox isn’t in New York enough to spend time with the former First Family, let alone his own.

Williams and Fox have a 2-year-old daughter named Sasha. Between them, they have five children, three from Williams’ previous marriage and one from a former Fox relationship. They’re all here for the Finals, a teeming brood that provides insulation from the prying outside world.

You think Vanessa Williams and Rick Fox can go anywhere together in New York? A meal out? You’d have an easier time passing Phil Jackson’s ego through the Lincoln Tunnel.

“I say it’s her fault and she says it’s my fault,” Fox said.

We’re thinking it’s Vanessa’s fault, but then there’s just no accounting for basketball fanatics.

So when the Broadway lights go dim and the final horn sounds, they mostly stay in, surrounded by five kids who draw a veil over their celebrity fishbowl.

Not that Fox always minds the attention. In fact, he has become something of a spokesman for the Lakers during their three-peat quest, certainly behind Bryant and O’Neal on the most-wanted media list, but polished, articulate and PR-savvy enough that his words are greatly valued.

Monday, for example, while Shaq and Kobe were offered for mass consumption in an auditorium-like setting, Fox literally held court on the floor of Continental Airlines Arena. Standing at a podium, he took questions ranging from Sacramento’s continued bitterness over not making the Finals to his role as a team representative.

Fox is practically 33 years old, nearing the end of his 11th NBA season, and quite content as a solid defense-first role player to the supernovas that are Kobe and Shaq. It is a comfortable and somewhat ironic position for Fox, who is a luminary everywhere else in life except on the basketball floor.