Lakers’ Magic Move Surprises Pfund : Pro basketball: Ousted coach thanks the team and indicates he might be willing to stay in another capacity.

The story was true, though it was premature.

On April 22, 1993, word came out that Randy Pfund was on his way out as Laker coach, and that owner Jerry Buss had asked Magic Johnson to coach the team.

It happened Tuesday, 11 months later, but Pfund still said he was surprised to be fired as coach of the Lakers.

“As you would expect, it is difficult news,” Pfund said Tuesday night. “I still lean on the side of thanking Dr. Buss and Jerry West for the opportunity they gave me. Down theline with the whole Laker staff, they are nothing but good people. I owe a special thanks to Bill (Bertka) and Chet (Kammerer), my two closest coaching buddies.

“I knew when I took the job that there was a great challenge ahead of us.”

The chief challenge was inheriting a team without a Magic Johnson.

Johnson has a similar challenge, because the Lakers said that the No. 32 jersey will stay retired to the Forum wall. He would not be a player/coach.

The coach on the floor under Pat Riley, Johnson is the coach on the bench, with Nick Van Exel and Sedale Threatt as his coaches on the floor.

Coach Johnson is a new title. He has not been an assistant.

“Magic is a very unique person,” Pfund said. “He certainly has the credentials as a player to do a good job. As tough as it is for me, I wish him the best of luck.”

Pfund had little luck in his time as head coach, having replaced Mike Dunleavy on the job after being assistant to Dunleavy and Pat Riley.

“There’s been some exciting moments the last two seasons or so, and some tough moments,” he said. “But I think the players and the staff all understood the tough challenge ahead of us. I appreciated the way the players had shown a willingness to face the uphill battle. This wasn’t as much fun as slipping rings on your fingers like in the ‘80s, but I think they still played hard all the way.”

Pfund says he has no immediate plans. But he did not discount the possibility of remaining with the organization that has employed him since 1985.

“I would always welcome the opportunity and would be more than grateful to sit down with Jerry (Buss) if there is an opportunity he sees for me.

“But for now, it is probably good not to have to figure out how to outrebound a team for a night.”

Pfund was fired after the Lakers’ 84-81 victory over the Miami Heat on Monday at the Forum, but he left Tuesday morning with the team on a charter flight to Dallas.

Ever the company man, he said that some issues had not been resolved--specifically who would coach the next two games: at Dallas tonight and at Houston on Thursday.

That job fell to Bertka, his top assistant, and Pfund will return home today.

Johnson will take over Sunday, when the Lakers play Milwaukee at the Forum.

He will be an instant drawing card to a team that has had only two sellouts all season and that has averaged what Forum ushers say is a heavily padded 11,000 a game.

He will bring excitement.

He will bring Michael Cooper, his backcourt partner on occasions through the Lakers’ glory years, as an assistant coach. It’s a job Cooper wanted when Pfund was named coach, but Pfund opted instead to hire his old Westmont College boss, Kammerer, and Cooper became an assistant to Jerry West, the Laker general manager.

Whether Johnson will bring enough victories to get the team into the playoffs is another issue. The Lakers (27-37) are 5 1/2 games behind the Denver Nuggets for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and there is talk around town about a lottery draft choice for the first time in franchise history. That talk is not coming from Jerry West, Laker general manager, who went into the team locker room at a game earlier this season and blasted the players for their lack of effort.

That last playoff spot saved Pfund’s job last season.

His original contract was for three years, through 1994-95, and he was offered an extension last fall after the Lakers took the Phoenix Suns to five games in the first round of the playoffs.

But he never signed the extension until two weeks ago.

That one-year extension indicated that the extra year would not necessarily be as coach. Asked if that meant he could be cleaning the Forum men’s rooms in that extra year, he laughed and said, “That’s what took me so long to sign it, making sure they took that clause out.”

Times staff writers Jim Hodges, Steve Springer and Helene Elliott contributed to this story.

* THE SUCCESSION: Magic Johnson will take over the Lakers on Sunday after Bill Bertka fills in for two games. A1