Jackson rallies the troops

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson ended one tradition this week, declining to slip on a championship ring when the playoffs began, but he continued a different ritual.

He has spliced clips of the movie “Miracle at St. Anna” into team video sessions, part of his attempt to add a certain theme to every playoff series.

“It’s a miracle. Miracles happen,” Jackson said when asked why he chose that film.

Come again? It wouldn’t be that much of a miracle if the Lakers win the championship . . . or would it?

Jackson insisted it took special circumstances for any team to win a title, perhaps mindful that injuries strike at any time.

“You have to have a tremendous amount of good fortune to come through playoffs and win,” he said.

The Spike Lee-directed movie is about four U.S. soldiers who get trapped by German soldiers in a village during World War II.

In the past, Jackson has shown clips of “Best in Show” to remind his players they’d be dogs if they lost early in the playoffs. He has also shown “Hustle & Flow” to underline the importance of effort in an underdog role.

Three years ago, he spliced cuts of “Inside Man” into video sessions, hitting on the theme of getting the ball down low to Kwame Brown against the undersized Suns.

When playoffs begin, Jackson usually wears the ring from his most recent championship team, but he said Sunday he would not put on the one from 2002 because he was “tired of wearing that ring.”

--

Your assistants, please

When the playoff victories come, the inquiries often follow.

Lakers assistant coaches Kurt Rambis and Brian Shaw have been interviewed for head-coaching jobs the last two seasons, a trend that might continue again.

Rambis and Shaw were mentioned at the end of a recent Sacramento Bee column that forecasted the imminent departure of Sacramento Kings interim Coach Kenny Natt. The Kings, however, are expected to hire an experienced coach such as Jeff Van Gundy or Mike Fratello.

Either way, losing qualified assistants is part of the process.

“The more you win, the better it is for everybody,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “Having said that, we already have a group of accomplished assistants and I wouldn’t be surprised in the near future if one or more of them got the chance to be a head coach.”

Rambis, 51, interviewed with Chicago last May and Sacramento and Seattle in 2007. Shaw, 43, interviewed with Chicago and Phoenix last May, as well as with Sacramento and Indiana in 2007.

--

Defensive

Kobe Bryant finished seventh in the voting for NBA defensive player of the year. Trevor Ariza tied for 16th.

Orlando center Dwight Howard, who led the league in rebounding and blocked shots, was the landslide winner, earning 105 first-place votes. Bryant had two.

The award was selected by a panel of 119 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Ariza had only one third-place vote but was encouraged to hear he earned some recognition. “I’m still going to play the way I play and do what I do,” Ariza said. “That’s pretty much it.”

--

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com