O’Neal Hits a Bull’s-Eye on Big Night

The realization came to Phil Jackson as he drove to practice at the Forum the other day.

He had the top down on his dark blue Porsche. It was one of those perfect days, the kind they don’t get in November around most of the country. It was the kind of day, in all honesty, we don’t have too often in this city: crisp and clear, without the brown-orange tint of smog. The mountains, the Hollywood sign and the downtown skyline battled for your attention, visible from all around the basin.

“I thought, ‘Man, it’s not easy to go to work in L.A. when it’s such a nice day,’ ” Jackson said.

These are the kinds of things that pass for difficulties around here. You know, all the hassles of living in L.A. Getting a free signal for your cell phone at 5 o’clock, finding a parking place at LAX and, in Jackson’s case, returning the Lakers to championship form.

Jackson thought of how he used to tease his players in Chicago that they were in the perfect place to work, because with weather that bad they might as well be inside at their job.

Jackson had no choice but to think about where he was and where he is this week. The Bulls came to Staples Center to play the Lakers on Friday night and Jackson got an up-close look at his old team--or what’s left of it.

It’s hard to get nostalgic about a team whose only starters Friday who remained from Jackson’s days there were Randy Brown and Will Perdue (returned to the Bulls after four seasons in San Antonio).

“As many people from Chicago say, ‘Do you miss Chicago?’ ” Jackson said. “Well, I don’t miss Chicago, I miss the people. Chicago is, itself, a physical space. But the people are the strongest part of being there.”

If anything, it was more difficult for him to face Scottie Pippen in Portland in the first week of the season.

Jackson says he is on good terms with his replacement, Tim Floyd. But Jackson has yet to pass up a chance to take a shot at his old nemesis, General Manager Jerry Krause.

The early edge on this breakup goes to Jackson. After the Bulls’ dynasty came to what many felt was a premature end in 1998, Jackson took a year to chill out while Michael Jordan and Pippen also made an exodus from Chicago. Now Phil’s back to work. And it’s working out.

This is a team that, like its star center, is often judged more in terms of what it doesn’t do than what it does.

So much attention has been focused on the Lakers’ shortage of big men, on Shaquille O’Neal’s free-throw woes, and Glen Rice’s struggles to fit in with the triangle offense that we might have overlooked what did go right: The team is 8-3.

Jackson is changing things, the team is listening.

“The players have the utmost respect for him,” said John Salley, who also played Jackson’s 1995-96 team in Chicago. “It has nothing to do with Michael; it has to do with his record. He has more championship rings than Michael [including the one Jackson won as a player with the New York Knicks].”

When Jackson lived in the workmanlike city of Chicago he didn’t face as difficult a task as he does here, in the land where the beach always beckons.

With the Bulls, not only did he have Jordan’s talent, he also had Jordan’s ferocious work ethic in practice. And he had veteran leaders such as Bill Cartwright for the first three-peat.

The Lakers don’t have leaders. And with two coaching changes and a major trade in 1999 alone, they haven’t had much time to grow.

“This is a group that I feel very strongly has that ability to build trust and faith in one another,” Jackson said. “They haven’t had continuity here. I think that’s something they’re learning, to invest themselves, to be a friend to get a friend. They have to extend themselves and give of themselves. [That’s] what creates this kind of a bond that you get.

“So we’re learning some of that, the trust and how far we can trust each other.”

In the meantime, Jackson is learning L.A. It didn’t seem to take long. He moved into a 5,000-square-foot house with ocean views in the Marina last month. He has made some little touches, such as a light purple-framed pair of glasses he has added to his eye-wear rotation. Very Staples Center chic.

“Once in a while I’ll have to say: ‘You didn’t have to anticipate liking it as much as you do, but you really do like L.A,’ ” Jackson said. “I think it’s a fun place for me to live in this time of my life.

“I haven’t taken trips to the country, I haven’t had days off in seven weeks, but I don’t feel at all stressed out about the job. It feels good.”

And when it comes to life in Los Angeles, isn’t that what it’s all about?

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