He’s Had Trouble Extending His Reach

One day, Phil Jackson will toss his Birkenstocks into the trunk of his Porsche and roll back to Montana, perhaps never to consider Los Angeles or the Lakers again, unless it is to count his championship rings.

The assumption was he would stay at least five years, the length of his contract with owner Jerry Buss, and this fall he started to consider adding years to the back end. He said he had agreed to meet with Buss after the season to discuss an extension, if for no other reason than to live out the Shaquille O’Neal years.

On Friday afternoon, Jackson said it has occurred to him that perhaps he can no longer reach his players. No surprise, really, because he has often said there is a finite period in which a coach can reach a player, or a group of them. He stayed nine years in Chicago, where he won six championships. He has been in Los Angeles for three, all championships.

And then, during Wednesday night’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, a defeat that ranked among his worst in Los Angeles, he said it struck him.

“We all have second thoughts,” he said. “And that was a second thought. So, I’ll wait and see what their response is to the year.”

Coming off those three consecutive titles, the Lakers have run into injury and complacency and aging. O’Neal had surgery in mid-September. Kobe Bryant played with an MVP-type edge, but the effort and the minutes appear to be wearing on his knees. In the summer, the Lakers stood pat, spending most of their money on Devean George, only to have him battle injuries and lack of confidence.

They are 19-23 after losing, 89-83, in their NBA Finals rematch with the New Jersey Nets on Friday night, 4 1/2 games out of the last playoff position, in ninth place in the Western Conference.

Though they have two of the best players in the league -- many would argue the best two -- the Lakers are consistently outhustled, particularly on defense.

Perhaps it was that fact alone that struck Jackson and led to Thursday’s two-hour meeting of coaches and players at the team’s facility in El Segundo.

“We don’t have enough time to discuss this in this kind of a meeting,” Jackson said in a pregame news conference. “But it’s been a push-and-pull kind of thing this year with them. I had to push too hard, or pull too hard on the reins, and that’s because we know that when we’re of one mind we know what we can do.

“It’s just corralling the minds. First of all, we had to get the bodies. The bodies are starting to get there. And now the minds are starting to bend and perform.”

Jackson did not put his thoughts into the context of his contract.