He’s Having Hard Time Getting a Read on Phil

It’s Monday night, and we’re about 45 minutes from the Lakers’ game against Memphis, and who knows anymore how these guys are going to play?

We’re only one evening removed from the Lakers’ tank job against Seattle -- a team that won’t make the playoffs, and at a time when the Lakers need every victory to sneak into postseason play with the home-court advantage in the first round.

I worry I might be to blame for this latest playoff detour -- poking fun at Chief Sitting (former) Bull last week for just sitting on the bench, only to learn a few days later he thought it’d be a good idea -- I’m sure he thinks it’s his own -- to do some coaching.

Before the game against Washington on Friday night, Phil Jackson went to Kobe Bryant and asked him to be more aggressive offensively against the Wizards, and Bryant responded with 55 points.

Two days later, Jackson, the author of “Mind Games,” was quoted saying: “As far as our team goes, it’s not great for our team [when Kobe scores 55]. I don’t think it’s doing anything for our team. It takes everybody else out of our offense.”

So that night Kobe goes out, scores three points in the first half, finishes with only 13 shots and the Lakers get pummeled by Seattle.

Maybe it’s true what they say: Coaches should be seen and not heard.

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NOW I’VE always contended Kobe should take every shot, and when he misses, Shaq should be there to rebound and score. That’s entertainment. I would also make the basket off-limits to Rick Fox, Devean George -- come to think of it, it already is in his case -- and Mark Madsen.

That first half against Washington the other night with Kobe scoring 42 points was jump-out-of-your-seat exciting, and after the game Jackson should have stepped in front of the media and just gushed. He’d already ruined part of the night by keeping Kobe on the bench in the fourth quarter.

But instead, and once again, he implied Kobe is not a team player, and so I asked the coach if Kobe might have been sensitive to his remarks as evidenced by his reserved offensive play in Seattle.

“I don’t know,” said Jackson, and if I’m ever invited to play “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” I know who my phone-a-friend lifeline won’t be.

I reminded the coach he’s around Bryant all the time, an observer of human nature, sensitivity and all that Zen stuff, and he said, “It doesn’t have to be Zen stuff -- you don’t know what that means.” I believe it means you enjoy walking in the damp morning grass with your shoes off, but that’s a strange chat for another time.

I continued. “Kobe is 24, and your comments were a little strong the other day,” and he said, “You weren’t there.”

I told him I took them out of the newspaper, wrote them down and then read them to him to determine if they were accurate. He said his comments were delivered in a whole different context other than how they appeared in the newspaper.

So I asked him to give me the correct context. “The correct context,” Jackson said, “was, ‘Do you think it’s good for the basketball club that Kobe scores this kind of points?’ I said, ‘No, it’s not good for the team.’ OK?”

OK, so what he said in the newspaper is exactly what he repeated to me minus the Zen interpretation that I’ll never understand.

I told Jackson Kobe probably read the same words in the newspaper that I read, and he said, “I don’t know if he read them or not.”

“I’m sure he’s a faithful Times’ reader,” I countered. In fact we have a great Sunday deal right now, and if you call 1-800-283-6397....

“I don’t read the paper,” Jackson said, “so I doubt if the players read the paper.” He dates the owner’s daughter; that doesn’t mean everyone dates the owner’s daughter.

I asked him, “Scout’s honor, you don’t read the paper?” and he said, “Scout’s honor,” and I’m so glad he didn’t put two fingers in the air and get mistaken for being a Trojan fan. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even a coach who doesn’t want to acknowledge he reads the paper.

“Who reads the paper to you?” I asked.

“If something is very upsetting, someone will come and read it to me,” he said, and I’m beginning to understand why Kobe has such a problem with this guy. (I just want to make sure somebody reads the paper to him today.)

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I ASKED Kobe if he was pouting in Seattle in response to Jackson’s comments about his scoring outburst against Washington, and he reacted as though he had never heard of the word. I spelled it for him, which was pretty risky on my part without having spell check to fall back on.

He said he wasn’t pouting but was only trying to get back into the rhythm of being a playmaker. “I challenge you to find anybody in the history of this league who’s had to do what I’m doing right now,” Kobe said, which is listening to Jackson vacillate day-to-day between asking him to be Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippin.

And that’s probably my fault. Jackson was doing just fine, taking nine teams to the NBA championship without ever once getting off the bench, and here I go and ruin things by urging him to become more involved. I need to back off, which would probably be the Zen thing to do.

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WHAT A relief to learn the Dodgers will win a game.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from James Meyers:

“Is there any chance of being invited to the [daughter’s] wedding? I’d like the chance to meet your wife.”

What makes you think the wife is going to be there?

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.