Frankly, It’s Not a Job Hamblen Longs For

It would be easy to imagine Frank Hamblen becoming the Lakers’ full-time coach and this town’s latest star discovery if only he would envision it himself.

“I really feel I’m just keeping the seat warm,” said the man who, as of Wednesday, is director of the glitziest franchise in sports. “And that’s OK.”

It’s almost as if he doesn’t want the job permanently, doesn’t care for any of the perks that go with it. He isn’t trying to use his new clout to snag a table at Ago. In fact, he and his wife ended his first full day as the successor to Rudy Tomjanovich with dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Marina del Rey.

Hamblen hears all of the noise about Phil Jackson reclaiming his throne, and he welcomes it.

“I’d love for Phil to come back any day,” Hamblen said.

He knows that his name won’t get the Lakers above the fold in the newspaper or at the top of “SportsCenter.”

When Lawrence Tanter announced him as the head coach of the Lakers before Thursday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, the crowd didn’t react at all. No applause. Not even a smattering. Can’t the man get a smattering?

“I think they need a high-profile person in this capacity in this city,” Hamblen said. “I’m pretty much a blue-collar guy.”

Who was Pat Riley when he became head coach in 1981? A fringe player who spent some time as Chick Hearn’s sidekick before heading to the bench as an assistant.

And what about the man who, in 1990, replaced Riley (who by then was a big-shot, four championships, a closet full of Armani suits and an ocean’s worth of hair gel later)? It was Mike Dunleavy, another journeyman who got his first head-coaching shot with the Lakers. He got the team back to the NBA Finals in Year 1.

Dunleavy was among those who called Hamblen to congratulate him Wednesday.

Jack Nicholson and Denzel Washington were not.

“A lot of out-of-work assistants in the league, wanting jobs,” Hamblen said of his voice-mail messages. “I may be in that same boat shortly.”

But what if, what if, you know, the Lakers started winning? And what if the Lakers get a series of breaks? Hamblen could Lavin his way right into a long-term contract.

For a moment there in the second quarter, when San Antonio’s Tim Duncan went down and grabbed his left knee in pain, it was enough to think of the ultimate scenario. There are better teams than the Lakers in the playoff field, but a fully loaded Spur squad is the one team the Lakers absolutely can’t beat. Without Duncan, though, a Finals showdown with Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat was at least in the realm of possibility.

But Duncan came back in the second half and the Spurs put the Lakers down by 28 points. The Lakers rallied to within seven before falling, 103-91.

So much for that fairy tale. But was it any more outrageous than the notion of Jackson’s coming back to the Lakers?

In the Spur locker room before the game, a reporter didn’t get a chance to finish his question, and Robert Horry didn’t bother to finish his drink.

“Could you imagine ... “

“Unh-uh,” Horry said from behind his sports drink bottle.

Take two.

“Could you imagine Phil Jackson coming back to coach the Lakers?”

“Unh-uh,” Horry said.

He put the drink down.

“Unhhh-uh.

“It’d be like me trying to go back and play in Phoenix,” he said, referring to the towel he tossed in then-coach Danny Ainge’s face that led the Suns to trade him to the Lakers in 1997.

Jackson threw the book at Kobe Bryant in his diary of the 2003-04 season published last fall, in which Jackson said at one point, “I’ve had it with this kid.”

“When you burn the bridge,” Horry said. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter who or what. If it’s been a player on the team, especially a significant player like Kobe -- he might say let bygones be bygones, but me personally, I don’t think [it could work], because it’d always be that underlying, ‘Oh, he talked about me.’

“Me, personally, I don’t think it would work out. But who knows? Crazier things have happened.”

Especially here in Lakerland.

How about the story of a career character actor landing the leading role?

Hamblen has more than 35 years of experience in the league. He’s putting discipline at the top of his agenda.

But Hamblen can also play the role of good cop on the bench. Or, as Horry said, “the sarcastic cop.”

It doesn’t have to be a glamour guy.

“It appeases the city’s nerves a lot, because you know what to expect from a big-name coach,” Kobe Bryant said. “But speaking from us players, we don’t care who the coach is, as long as we believe in him. We believe in Rudy, we believe in Frank.”

Whomever Bryant endorses will instantly have clout in the locker room. But will he get it done at the box office?

Late in the third quarter, a chant came from Section 215.

“We want Phil. We want Phil.”

The people have spoken. When General Manager Mitch Kupchak speaks, he leaves the door wide open.

I think eventually Jackson will realize that it isn’t a smart move for him. And perhaps the Lakers might realize that Hamblen wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

And Hamblen might even reach that conclusion himself.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.