Jackson’s Return Might Be a Wish for a Jeanie

When I read that Phil Jackson and Luc Longley were swimming together in the Indian Ocean, I called Jeanie Buss to find out if there was something she wasn’t telling me.

But she said nothing has changed -- she and Phil remain hot-tub companions.

In fact, she said, they talk almost every day by telephone about basketball, and when Phil isn’t off gallivanting with the guys in Australia, they continue to be boyfriend and girlfriend in Los Angeles, watching the Lakers together on TV.

Most of us can’t do that, of course, because we’re married.

“He’ll never marry me,” she said, and I said I understood.

“It’s not me,” she whelped. “He just doesn’t want to get married again,” and I said I understood.

But what about coaching the Lakers again? I asked. Maybe your dad can offer him the job, as long as Phil agrees to give you a ring.

“My dad has got enough to worry about than trying to find me a husband,” she said with a laugh. “All I know is it’s taken me longer to get to Laker games this season, and I’d like Phil to coach again so I’d have somebody to go with me in the carpool lane.”

I was going to suggest just putting a big, old dummy in the seat next to her, because that’s my last picture of Jackson sitting on the Laker bench in Detroit, but she and I have a good relationship and I didn’t want her to start singing: “My boyfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble, hey la hey la my boyfriend’s back.”

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I CAN see Phil returning for Jeanie, but for the Laker job?

“I’m not going to have anything to do with that decision from a Laker standpoint; that’s my dad,” she said. “But I know Phil thinks any team with Kobe Bryant on it can win a championship. It’s also my sense that Phil is going to be coaching in the NBA next season, and Phil’s a cagey guy. He’s going to want to go some place where he can win, so figure it out.”

There’s also talk Jackson might be offered the Knicks’ job.

“Phil needs to go some place that has some level of familiarity,” she said. “That’s why the Knick job is so logical. He understands the town, knows Madison Square Garden, and so I can see that too.

“We had some Garden executives at Staples Center the other night, and trust me, I went over and spent some time with them -- covering all my bases in case he goes back there and I need a seat.”

Jeanie said, like everyone else, she figured Phil would be Montana-bound after he left the Lakers, “but he considers this his home now.”

His permanent home?

“I’ve been telling my dad for a while this is a good team, young and very athletic with a lot of skill and potential,” said Jeanie, who is the Lakers’ executive vice president of business operations. “A lot of that is what Phil pointed out to me while we watched the games on TV. He loves this Laker team, and thinks it’s a great team. I know Phil, and he wouldn’t say that just to make me feel better.”

I’m not so sure, because they’re still just dating, but great team or not, doesn’t much of this come down to how Bryant and Jackson might co-exist?

“There are people who believe you have to be best friends, but that’s not Phil’s way with any of his players. Phil loves to win, and he looks at Kobe and says, ‘This guy is unbelievable and he has the talent to take me where I want to go.’

“Now you take Phil’s birthday; he didn’t get a lot of calls,” she said, and I’m not surprised. “It’s not like his former players call him. Michael Jordan doesn’t call him. Both Phil and Kobe are professionals, competitors who want to win and they have all that in common.”

Knowing Bryant as I do, I’d imagine the first time he was told of Jackson’s possible return, Bryant’s eyes rolled all the way to the back of his head. I’d also bet he offered a profanity in mock disgust.

But then he would’ve listened, in part because he remains on damage control, but primarily because he respects what it takes to win nine championship trophies. He said it a year ago here in an interview at the All-Star break, while he didn’t like Jackson personally, he had great respect for him as a coach and what Jackson had taught him.

“Phil is not the easiest person to get along with, and I know, because I spend a lot of time with him,” Jeanie said, and she wonders why he doesn’t ask her to get married. “But I think Phil and Kobe would be great together.”

But why would Jackson want to return to coaching?

“He needs the challenge,” she said. “He’s been driving everyone crazy who is near him; he doesn’t have enough to do.”

She said that Jackson could price himself out of the Laker job before it’s offered, but if necessary, “I’ll stop taking gifts from him and buy dinner,” adding with a laugh, “but then I’ll probably have to ask my dad to increase my allowance.”

She said her father and boyfriend remain on good terms, the family going together to New York for dinner and a play. “Dad picked up the tab,” she said.

If Dr. Jerry Buss continues his spending spree and gives Jackson the job of coaching the Lakers again, that presents another problem: Jackson’s recent book, “The Last Season.”

“We might have to make that, ‘Maybe Not the Last Season,’ ” Jeanie joked.

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IF YOU watched the Rudy T. news conference you might’ve noticed him opening a Diet Coke only to see the label gone the next time it appeared on camera.

Pepsi is a Laker sponsor, so team officials sent for another bottle of Diet Coke, removing the label and making the switch before he took his next swig on camera.

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IT HAS BEEN 33 hours, and I’d like to thank those who sent water and food, but I must report there’s still no phone call from Jamie McCourt as she promised.