There’s Sympathy, but No One Rushes to Pfund’s Defense

Nice guy, that Randy Pfund.

Magic Johnson, who has replaced Pfund as the Lakers’ coach, and General Manager Jerry West agreed there’s probably not a more pleasant or diligent person in basketball than Pfund. Michael Cooper, who will move from the front office to a place beside Johnson as an assistant coach, even offered Pfund sympathy on losing his job.

“He’s always had an obstacle in his way,” Cooper said. “He never had an opportunity to work with a full ballclub.”

But being a nice guy didn’t win him any games, leading them to a less-than-glowing assessment of Pfund’s performance.

While they avoided personal criticism and said they respect his efforts, the principals at Wednesday’s Forum news conference cited several qualities they felt Pfund did not supply during his 151-game term. Intensity in games and practices, consistency, solid defensive strategy and the respect given a former player were the missing links, they said, links they hope Johnson can forge.

West was irked by the team’s erratic defense. Before Wednesday’s game at Dallas, the Lakers had given up an average of 103.9 points per game, the sixth-highest total in the NBA and 3.9 points more than they had scored.

“If you’re defensively coordinated, you can compete,” West said. “All year long our biggest concern, especially with our younger players, was that at times we just did not defend well.”

Cooper called the defense “very, very lacking.” He added: “Randy’s philosophy was to put up 100 points and to be a fast-break team. The fans of L.A. enjoy that (from the championship era). Little do the fans know our fast breaks were predicated off good defense, rebounds and steals. All of that put Showtime into effect. Under the freedom of Earvin, we will work a little more on defense, transition and a half-court style.”

Said Johnson: “I just think what we have here a lot of young guys, we have to be aggressive. Randy was different in his approach, and you’ll see me different from Randy. We’ve got to pick people up (defensively). We’ve got to make them use up the clock. We’re not big and strong. We’ve got to get out on them and be aggressive.

“You see the Orlando game (a 97-91 victory Sunday). When we’ve been aggressive, we’ve usually won those games. We didn’t do it on a consistent basis.”

Johnson, who in January criticized players’ acceptance of losing and lack of pride, said he will make practices tougher and mold a team that is more forceful on the court.

“My opinion of Randy is very high because I know Randy personally. I’ve been through a lot of wars with Randy. Randy is a good guy,” Johnson said of Pfund, who was a Laker assistant for seven years. “I’m not going to sit here and bash him. Maybe he was just in the wrong situation at the wrong time.”

Buss was out of town and not available for comment. Pfund could not be reached Wednesday.

Cooper sidestepped the question of whether the players respected Pfund, who never played in the NBA. “You’re supposed to have respect for your head coaches and it looked like they did,” Cooper said. “I wasn’t around on a daily basis. But Earvin will definitely warrant respect because he’s been there. He’s a legend.”

Laker Kurt Rambis said of Pfund: “Who’s to know what a fair shake is? Did they let him stick around too long or did they cut him short by two years? No one will ever know the answer to that question. You just know he felt strongly about the ballclub, he liked the players. He really felt that at this point in time we were coming around as a young ballclub starting to do the things we’d talked all season about doing.”

And so Pfund will be replaced by the player whose retirement on the eve of the 1992-93 season ruined the plans he had created for his first coaching season. West acknowledged that Pfund was a victim of misfortune and that Pfund’s efforts were undermined this season by injuries to Doug Christie, Anthony Peeler and Sam Bowie.

“Randy Pfund is one of the great people I’ve met. I’ll say that until my dying day,” West said. “I think he did a nice job under difficult circumstances.”

All-Time Laker Coaching Roster

Coach Yrs. Reg. Season Pct. Playoffs Pct. Titles John Kundla* 11 423-302 .583 60-35 .632 5 George Mikan* 1 9-30 .231 -- -- 0 John Castellani* 1 11-25 .306 -- -- 0 Jim Pollard* 1 14-25 .359 5-4 .555 0 Fred Schaus 7 315-245 .563 33-38 .465 0 Bill van Breda Kolff 2 107-57 .652 21-12 .636 0 Joe Mullaney 2 94-70 .573 16-14 .533 0 Bill Sharman 5 246-164 .600 22-15 .595 1 Jerry West 3 145-101 .589 8-14 .364 0 Jack McKinney 1 9-4 .714 -- -- 0 Paul Westhead 3 112-50 .691 13-6 .684 1 Pat Riley 9 533-194 .733 102-47 .685 4 Mike Dunleavy 2 101-63 .616 13-10 .565 0 Randy Pfund 2 66-80 .452 2-3 .400 0

* With Minneapolis Lakers