Zensational Day

With the confidence and charisma of a man who has little trouble seizing command of the kookiest situations, a whole new Laker constitution was enacted and exhibited on Wednesday:

Phil Jackson rules.

He can joke and fend off silly questions and discuss Zen philosophy and plot a pass-happy Shaquille O’Neal smoothly into the triangle offense.

But, at the heart of it all, in a transitory time in Laker history, Jackson rules. He definitely, definitely rules.

At a Beverly Hills news conference that was alternately surreal and crackling with pent-up energy, Jackson was introduced as the new Laker coach, and instantly redefined the title.

With a five-year, $30-million deal in hand, Jackson is the coach, yes.

But, summoned to L.A. after a dispiriting season of Laker excess, Jackson is also willing and expected to be the disciplinarian, moral force, strategist, architect, spokesman and the franchise’s greatest hope.

“I think in looking at this basketball team, this is a team that is talented, it’s young, it’s on the verge,” he said.

“It’s been on the verge, and yet it hasn’t quite gotten over the top. It’s a similar situation that happened 10 years ago in Chicago, and we hope to have the same type of success.”

Jackson, 53, won six NBA championships in the final eight seasons of his Chicago Bull run, walking away from Michael Jordan and numerous headaches after winning the 1997-98 title to take a one-year sabbatical.

With the Lakers, he takes over a team that is front-loaded with marquee talent but has been marked by strife, playoff failures and behind-the-scenes coups the last two seasons.

The turmoil, Laker management indicated Wednesday, is over.

The hiring of Jackson, and his huge financial package, means that there will be no more undermining statements or end runs to the media or the executive suites.

“You know, with the selection of another coach, if the season didn’t go real well, we’d have to go through the same thing again next year,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said.

“We’re not going to go through that again. If we don’t do well this year, we’re going to look at the players. That’s it. That’s a big change.

“We’re going to find out how good we really are. Because this is the best coach we can get for this team. And he’s not going anywhere.”

After several days of build-up as the Lakers completed the deal with Jackson and his agent, Todd Musburger, Jackson had remained silent. First, he was in Alaska, finishing up a fishing vacation. Then he was in the background, waiting for the deal to be done.

On Wednesday, he addressed his new situation for the first time, and he came as advertised--witty, worldly and completely sure of himself and his, as he repeatedly said, “system of basketball” that forces players into teamwork and sacrifice.

While other teams pursued his services over the last year, the Lakers, he said, always appealed to him most because O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and Jerry West and Jerry Buss seemed to need him most.

“It was the fact that my talents and the talent of this team did match up well together,” Jackson said. “I just felt that this was something that kind of meshed.

“I know Shaq, I’ve been in many situations with him. I’ve got a feel for him a little bit. I think he’s not played to his ability in the last couple of seasons. He can be better than he is. He can be the most valuable player in this league.

“I’ve been very intrigued with Kobe Bryant, who I think has got Michael-Jordanesque type of ability and yet is a player that’s still uneducated in basketball and in life. And he’s willing to learn.”

The issue, Jackson said, is to move the Lakers to a place where they trust each other enough to pass the ball and defend the lane, to make this struggling bunch of egos make the same transition that Jordan, Scottie Pippen and the others in Chicago did, winning a title in Jackson’s second season.

“When you have a system of offense, you can’t be a person that just is taking the basketball trying to score,” Jackson said. “You have to move the basketball, because . . . you have to share the basketball with everybody.

“And when you do that, you’re sharing the game, and that makes a big difference. It’s like trusting each other, and when you trust each other in basketball, then it goes to the other end of the court.”

Said West: “I think what Phil talked about was how to get players really to trust themselves, how to get everyone to share the ball.

“And in the offense he plans to run, everyone has to do that, or no one’s ever going to score. That to me is the most important aspect of having him here.

“I don’t think we have to worry at the end of the season about coaches any more. I think we have to worry about trying to improve our personnel and also trying to get to the next level.”

Asked about personnel matters, Jackson agreed that power forward was an area the Lakers need to improve.

But Jackson pointedly brushed aside speculation that he would soon be trying to reunite his old Bull players now scattered around the league, saying the Lakers probably only needed minor personnel changes.

“My old players? I’d like to have them all,” Jackson said, smiling. “Obviously, we had the right crew there in Chicago. But most of them are under contract and Michael’s retired and Dennis [Rodman] has gone into some other ozone. . . .”

West, for his part, flatly said the Lakers are not planning to trade for Pippen, and only shook his head with a blank look after re-signing Rodman was suggested.

“To be honest with you, I think the talent is here,” Jackson said. “The players on this team right now have the ability to move into that next step.”

Bryant, the only Laker who lives in the area, made a point to stop by Jackson’s hotel room before the news conference, and Jackson said he was impressed.

As for O’Neal, who has never been used in a movement-based, high- and low-post offense, Jackson rebuffed any thought that the big center would find it difficult to adapt to his triangle offense.

“It doesn’t take a chemical-engineering degree to figure out how to play basketball, that’s for sure,” Jackson said.

“Basically, it’s built for a center-in offense. Jerry will tell you playing with Wilt Chamberlain in a very similar offense led to a championship here, the first one in L.A., in the 1971-72 season, in which they set a record. . . .

“And also that Alex Hannum used the same offense with Wilt Chamberlain in Philadelphia when the 76ers set a record, won the championship in ‘66-67. And Wilt led the league in assists at that time, in a center-option kind of offense. . . .

“It’s how good a passer can Shaquille be in this type of situation? How willing will he be to make [his] offense not primary but maybe secondary as he becomes more of the focal point of the offense?”

You can listen to the Phil Jackson press conference, see a gallery of photos from his championship seasons, hear J.A. Adande discuss Jackson’s impact on the Lakers, and participate in an online discussion on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/philjackson.

MORE COVERAGE

CHICAGO WEST: Ex-Bulls Steve Kerr and Will Perdue say Phil Jackson will teach the Lakers a lot. Page 8

WHAT’S NEXT? Jackson probably will bring in Cleamons and Rodgers as assistant coaches. Page 8

PLAYER REACTION, PAGE 9