Clippers’ Winners on Bench

The only thing more jarring than the sight of two participants in the NBA’s greatest rivalry of the 1980s joining forces is to see two men so known for winning associated with the Clippers.

Almost 13 years after they last faced each other in the NBA finals, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dennis Johnson share the same bench. The Clippers brought them in as assistant coaches in February, hoping the weight of their nine combined NBA championship rings can somehow offset the ballast that continually drags the franchise down.

“We have to change what is accepted as OK here,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who won five championships with the Lakers and another with the Milwaukee Bucks. “The only way you can do that is just hard work from the basic levels on up. You do the hard work at the most fundamental levels and the next level gets easier. You have to put it in at that level, one step at a time. We’re trying to put those steps into action. We’ll see how successful we are.”

For so many years, Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson competed against each other. Johnson spent the first four years of his career in Seattle (where he won a title in 1979) and the next three years in Phoenix, battling Abdul-Jabbar’s Lakers in the Western Conference.

Johnson spent the last seven years of his playing days in Boston. Those Celtics faced the Lakers in the finals three times, with the Lakers winning twice. The memories of those competitions haven’t faded.

“We remember certain things,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “[Johnson] put a play in for us--I remembered that the Celtics used to run that for Robert Parish and [Kevin] McHale. I knew the play. I could remember it.”

Johnson likes to bring up the jumper he made to win Game 4 of the 1985 finals. And he teases Kareem that the Big Fella’s sky hook that sealed the Lakers’ victory in Game 6 of that series was a lucky shot, out of his normal range.

“He said no, he does that all the time,” Johnson said.

Even when they’re on the same team now, when Johnson sees the sky hook go up, “Every now and then I’ll raise my hand to try to block it.”

He swears he once got a hold of one during their playing careers.

“I was a young guy in Seattle,” Johnson said. “I did actually swipe it from the side. . . . He tells me he doesn’t remember it.”

The more time Johnson spends with Abdul-Jabbar, the more he is reminded of Parish, the longtime Celtic center.

“When you see them, they’re out in the public, they’re very stiff-faced and reserved,” Johnson said. “But when you get him behind the door, you can see all the laughter. You can see the character. He’s a fun dude.”

Abdul-Jabbar usually shows his stoic side on the bench. Johnson is more prone to jump up to applaud a good play or protest to the referees. During timeouts, Abdul-Jabbar tends to zero in on center Michael Olowokandi, the team’s No. 1 pick in 1998.

“He stays after it, every single thing I do out there,” Olowokandi said. “My body language, my emotion, the way I approach the game, my approach to the team, my individual matchup. He’s always talking to you. That kind of helps you. You can’t afford to be relaxed out there.

“He knows the game today. I was kind of wary that he might just know the game of yesteryear, but he knows how guys are going to play, how my matchup’s going to play, how I should play him.”

If Abdul-Jabbar provides the technical insight, Johnson helps the players keep their minds in the proper state.

“He’s that icebreaker we need,” guard Derek Anderson said. “When guys are getting frustrated, he’s the guy who keeps everybody even. He’s definitely needed around here.

“He keeps you motivated. We’re in a situation where you know it’s a bad situation. He kind of makes it all right. You can never make it perfect, but you can make it all right.”

For Johnson, the Clippers represented his road back into the NBA. He was an assistant with the Celtics for four years and was beginning to be mentioned in connection with head coaching jobs before he was cut loose when Rick Pitino went to Boston in 1997.

Johnson was living in Orlando, Fla., in October 1997 when he was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and domestic violence after an altercation with his wife, Donna. Police did not pursue the charges because his wife did not want to prosecute.

Suddenly, Johnson’s name stopped coming up on the coaching rumor mill. Which might have been a blessing.

“I didn’t need to be back in coaching right then,” Johnson said. “I needed to correct myself, correct my family, get with family, my oldest son, and all of that.

“We had 25 years of marriage. For 10 minutes, I went nuts. Was it worth breaking up? We had never even separated at any point. We are fine until today.”

Johnson and his wife had planned to move back to Southern California anyway when the Clippers called Dennis, who was in his first year as coach of the La Crosse Bobcats in the Continental Basketball Assn.

So not only was it a chance to get back to the NBA, he could get the moving costs paid for as well.

Abdul-Jabbar had followed the road less traveled in his pursuit of an NBA coaching career, even spending a year coaching a team on an Indian reservation.

“It was a great opportunity for me in terms of what the Clippers needed and where I was in my quest to get a job,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I thought it was a good fit.”

One of Abdul-Jabbar’s tactics seemed to borrow a page from Phil Jackson; he left copies of his book, “Black Profiles in Courage,” in each player’s locker. But if there’s one coach who had an influence on Kareem, it’s John Wooden.

“I hope to be as insightful as Coach Wooden about the game,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “But I have my own personal style; we all did. Coach Wooden understood the game, basically, and he was able to get the right people in the right position.”

There’s one lingering question: Did DJ really block the sky hook?

“There’s a whole lot of people with no evidence who go around saying that,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I don’t know if it happened. I’m still doubting that.”

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