Stunning Laker Reversal

It was tough to tell which was the bigger story Friday, the Lakers moving toward signing Phil Jackson or the release of the “Austin Powers” sequel.

The reaction is the same either way: Yeah, baby!

Things are getting serious in Lakerland now. It’s a little safer to start thinking in championship terms.

The Lakers finally realized that it takes a great driver in a great car to win the race. They finally decided to spend every last dollar.

The best thing about bringing Jackson in to coach is, it removes one more excuse for the players. When the last two seasons ended in unacceptable sweeps, an overmatched Del Harris and an inexperienced Kurt Rambis received good chunks of the blame. The players won’t have that escape hatch anymore.

The Lakers tuned out Harris, and Rambis never really gave them anything to tune in to. Jackson has been to the mountaintop, again and again and again and again and again.

Sure, you can say he won with the best players. But you can’t say he lost with the best players, which hasn’t been the case for Laker coaches these days.

The last six times Jackson had Michael Jordan in training camp, the Chicago Bulls won NBA championships. They won two of their last four titles without homecourt advantage in the NBA finals.

I covered three of those championship runs, and I know I’ve never looked back after any playoff series and thought Jackson had been outcoached.

Things just seemed to work for him. Take his decision to go with his bench in the fourth quarter of Game 6 of the 1992 finals against Portland. It might have been seen as a white flag. Instead, the reserves brought the Bulls back from a big deficit.

All you ask of any coach is that he put his team in position to win. And the Bulls were always right there, ready for Jordan to do his thing in money time.

So now Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant have to let Phil do all the talking and all the coaching, and just play. Not only has Jackson won more than they as a coach, he has won more rings as a player. His safe-deposit boxes are full. Shaq and Kobe have to produce.

With this group, Jackson has to step it up too. Not only did Jordan’s presence make coaching games easier, it made running practice easier. Jordan brought intensity even on the days off, all but forcing his teammates to work hard.

One of Jackson’s strengths is knowing when to be quiet. He let Jordan rip into the team after a lackluster half during the finals a couple of years ago, knowing that would have more impact than anything Jackson could say.

When the Bulls were about to dissolve after Scottie Pippen’s infamous sit-in with 1.8 seconds remaining in a playoff game against the New York Knicks, Jackson turned to Bill Cartwright to pull them back together.

He doesn’t have the veterans to turn to this time. Derek Harper played that role for a while this season, but his impact diminished as the season wore on and he wore down.

Jackson will have to lead. The Lakers will have to listen.

He’s definitely being heard here in New York.

If Madison Square Garden President Dave Checketts was committed to canning Jeff Van Gundy, no matter how well his team fared in these playoffs, he just lost that option. Checketts could maybe--maybe--get away with firing a winning coach if he brought in one with more credentials, such as Jackson. Right now there’s no one out there who could make Van Gundy’s exit look halfway justifiable.

Plus, thanks to extensions and bonuses that kick in with the Knicks reaching the NBA finals, they owe Van Gundy (as Dr. Evil would say) 5.5 meeeel-yon dollars, even if they get rid of him.

What’s good for Van Gundy is bad for Rambis. No, taking over midway through a lockout-compressed season with the comings and goings of Dennis Rodman, Glen Rice, Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell was not an easy way to debut.

But the Lakers don’t have time for on-the-job training for coaches, at least not as long as they have superstars who still haven’t learned how to play together.

(If I’m Rambis, after spending the week in Chicago working for the Lakers at the pre-draft camp only to learn I’m being replaced, I’m somehow “losing” my notes.)

This also could be bad news for the Laker assistants. New guys always want their guys, and Jackson could do a lot worse than reassembling members of his old staff in Los Angeles. He could bring in John Bach, who was beloved by the Bull players but hated by petty General Manager Jerry Krause and forced out in 1995.

He could give Jim Cleamons a smooth return to the NBA. Cleamons was a promising assistant for Jackson who got a raw deal in his first head-coaching job in Dallas, where he was dispatched by the mad scientist, Don Nelson.

The assistants are still details that need to be worked out, like the final amount of the money.

Think big picture, baby: Austin Powers is in the theaters, Phil Jackson is on his way. Things are looking groovy.

J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.