Pitino Is Put in His Place

Rick Pitino will not be the Lakers’ coach and I have never been more pleased. Pitino is a preening little prima donna and a Napoleonic know-it-all who has never won anything, but for some egocentric reason thinks he is Supercoach. The only thing the Lakers could have counted on with Pitino as coach is that he would have hogged credit for the victories and passed blame for the defeats.

I only hope Pitino’s announcement that he is staying at Kentucky does not put Laker-maker Jerry West in much of a bind. My advice would be, find a good lawyer who can get Phil Jackson out of his contract.

As things stand, West must find somebody to run the Lakers, literally, because owner Jerry Buss wants this team to run, run, run. None of this holding the opponent to 70 points the way the New York Knicks do. The reason Jerry Buss brought Magic Johnson back is because Jerry Buss wants to play Magic Johnson basketball. Fast and loose.

Well, it worked for one week. Then Johnson discovered he was the engineer in a train wreck.

West will find a coach. Experience is preferred, but not required. Very few of the Laker coaching appointees, from Pat Riley to Mike Dunleavy to Randy Pfund, had any pedigree as a pro head coach. Riley and Pfund virtually got their promotions by default. And the temp, Magic Johnson, was presented from one Jerry to the other Jerry as a done deal, even though Johnson wanted to be a coach about as much as he wanted to be a taxidermist.

All we found out for sure in that last Laker month was that Pfund did a better job than anyone seems willing to acknowledge. That 10-game losing streak to end the season demonstrated that this was a club of second-rate talent and outrageous nonchalance that even Magic couldn’t motivate. You couldn’t light a fire under Elden Campbell with a can of Sterno. People have to stop expecting Campbell to play up to his potential, because he already has.

There are quick cures around, notably Horace Grant and Danny Manning. With either one, the Lakers vault back into playoff contention, and I mean overnight. But everyone’s after those two. I doubt the Lakers will end up with either. Everyone’s after Horace because everyone needs help with a capital H. And bet you anything Manning re-ups with Atlanta.

As for Dominique Wilkins, the man is chicken soup; he couldn’t hurt. He would make the Lakers more fun to follow. Long term, OK, Wilkins solves nothing, but who cares about long term? Let’s win now. The Western Conference is a man-eater. All I know is the Lakers with Wilkins would be better than the Lakers without Wilkins.

‘Nique has to make up his mind--need or greed. He isn’t worth what he is demanding from the Clippers, but the man understandably has the Clipper people over a barrel. What he must decide is whether he wants to win a championship before he’s done or whether he wants to be seriously rich. He cannot win a championship with the Clippers in this lifetime. They can outbid most clubs, but how much money does Wilkins need? He should sign with the Knicks for 10 bucks a night.

And, speaking of the Knicks, they will be in the finals this season against the Phoenix Suns. Just so you know.

I have never been so sure of anything as I am that the Knicks will be the champions of the Eastern Conference. They have everything it takes. They play serious, almost manic defense. They have a go-to guy. They have a coach who keeps them on edge by not putting up with any guff. They have John Starks coming back. They go nine-deep, maybe 10. Atlanta is strong and has the home-court edge, but this is New York’s year.

To win it all? I’m not sure. A voice inside my head keeps saying Phoenix, although, as I have pointed out many times, the next time Phoenix wins anything will be the first. Arizona people go boo-hoo whenever someone suggests that their Suns won’t win the championship, but that’s because they never do, in case you people still haven’t noticed.

Maybe this time, though. I know other people are fixating on Seattle, with nods toward Houston and San Antonio as the teams from that conference to watch. Not me. I thought the Suns might have seen their day come and go when Charles Barkley was suffering back spasms and mentioning retirement, but suddenly Barkley seems primed to make a run at one championship before he leaves us. Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle, A.C. Green, Cedric Ceballos, hey, I like this team a ton.

Here’s how I view the playoffs:

Orlando will eliminate Indiana, but that will be it for Shaquille O’Neal, who might be more famous than any man alive who has never won a thing. I like Chicago over Cleveland, shakily, and Atlanta over Miami, handily, and New York over New Jersey, no sweat.

Some think otherwise, but I look at the Western first round as four no-brainers. Seattle, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio. The only one of the three others that has a chance, in my mind, to keep Phoenix from reaching the final is Seattle. But something tells me when the big games are on the line, Phoenix will have somebody to go to, Seattle won’t.

Knicks vs. the Suns? It could go either way. I guess I’ll go with the Knicks, mostly because their coach is no longer Rick Pitino.