For Jackson, Talk of the Future Is Now

Not gone yet, though his summer place in Montana -- and perhaps retirement -- beckons, Phil Jackson has meetings scheduled with Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak today and owner Jerry Buss on Friday that could determine the course of his coaching career.

The critical conference would appear to be Friday’s, with Buss, who is said to be more interested in pleasing and re-signing Kobe Bryant than retaining Jackson, whose philosophies Bryant has occasionally disagreed with.

Kupchak was expected to speak Wednesday with Buss after the team’s five-game loss to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals. Buss had been so repulsed, he left the Palace of Auburn Hills after the third quarter of Game 5.

Those close to the situation say Jackson is perhaps as likely to suggest the split as Buss, thinking his time with the Lakers has simply run its course, through three championships and four Finals appearances in five years. The Lakers had become glamorous again, winners again, and barring a knee injury to Karl Malone might have sent Jackson out with a 10th title.

As it is, contract negotiations Buss suspended in February might never restart, sending Jackson to another career hiatus. He sat out a year between jobs with the Chicago Bulls and Lakers. Although he has insisted he’d never coach another team, friends are equally insistent Jackson would not resist the lure of NBA competition for long, and the offers surely would come steadily.

Jackson, however, made no announcement after Tuesday night’s loss and has not notified his coaching staff or players of his imminent departure.

So, the Laker off-season started quickly, on a gray day in El Segundo, where a few players came and went but most stayed away.

As expected, Malone became a free agent Wednesday when he did not submit paperwork to the Lakers that would have extended his contract through next season.

The transaction itself does not make it any more or less likely that he will play for the Lakers next year. Malone, who will be 41 next month, will spend the summer rehabilitating his right knee, considering the wishes of his family and monitoring his desire to continue his NBA career into a 20th season.

Malone’s agent, Dwight Manley, said Wednesday, “I think if he plays next season, he would play for the Lakers.”

That said, Manley added, referring to Malone’s $1.5-million salary, “Karl gave them a gift for one year, not for two years.”

If Malone chooses to return, a decision that might not be made until the end of summer, the Lakers still could pay him the $1.65 million he’d otherwise had coming, or all or part of the mid-level exception, expected to be worth about $5 million.

Malone returned Wednesday to Los Angeles on a private jet with Manley and their Newport Beach neighbor, Bryant. Derek Fisher also did not board the team charter, but the rest of the Lakers flew from Detroit midmorning, arrived early afternoon, and went on with their lives, three wins short of the organization’s 15th NBA title.

Exit meetings started immediately. Rick Fox sat with Kupchak on Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the players are expected today and Friday. It is unknown whether Jackson, whose contract runs to the end of June, would participate.

In what must have felt like the wee hours of their time together, Fox, for years part of the conscience and dignity of an often-reckless locker room, lamented their loss.

He marveled at the Pistons, their “passion and dedication and, really, the execution” of what they had done to the Lakers over 10 days, what the Lakers used to do to others.

“That’s one thing we weren’t able to live up to,” he said.

There were more.

“They dismantled us in many ways,” he said.

And now the Lakers could finish the job themselves.

Jackson all but walked away Tuesday night. Days after girlfriend Jeanie Buss had him 95% in, he put himself 95% out.

Jackson’s pending departure, Fox said, “really [was] one of the underlying themes of the second half of the season. It’s been something we all could have controlled with a championship.”

It appears Bryant will intermingle a sexual assault trial with NBA free agency. Malone will figure on retirement until his knee feels better. Gary Payton will consider other options until he’s pretty sure Jackson is serious about Montana.

Kupchak will have a roster to rework and, it appears, a coaching staff to rebuild. Of the potential successors to Jackson, Kupchak must decide who among them has the creativity to entice Bryant, the authority to rule Shaquille O’Neal and the cachet to lure free agents, as Jackson had. Perhaps he won’t decide at all. Perhaps Buss will leave that to Bryant, who, at 25, would appear to have his run of the organization, if he chooses.

In the locker room, among the players, Jim Cleamons and Kurt Rambis would have some support, though Cleamons appears to have his heart set on succeeding Jim O’Brien at Ohio State. NBA insiders believe Kupchak will hold to his North Carolina ties and at least talk to George Karl. A year out of the game, Brian Shaw has the players’ respect, but has not yet coached and would need a veteran staff around him.

O’Neal has two more years on his contract, though he can leave after next season. If he is displeased with the roster and/or coach, if he does not get his contract extension, if the organization does not fawn over him, he will become a handful, and the trade demands will come.

It will be a big job, bigger than last July, when the franchise listed after a second-round playoff elimination, and the Malone and Payton signings appeared to right it. If Jackson is gone and Bryant follows, the Lakers of O’Neal and Co. might never attract the likes of Malone again, not at the price Malone paid, the hours spent quelling disputes and soothing psyches.

Although more than a few Lakers say O’Neal and Bryant have had enough of each other, Fox said he wanted them to remain a tandem, toxic or not.

“I hope so. I hope so for themselves,” he said. “The one thing they’re going to have to realize is they’re always going to be compared to each other. They’re always going to be a duo that won three championships and had great times and frustrating times and that’s not ever going to change.... They’re going to always talk about Shaq and Kobe.”