Highlight of Night Came Before Game

The NBA Finals will not be seen on ABC at this time so we can bring you this special edition of “Desperate Franchise.”

Only the Lakers make the pregame show the most anticipated moment of the championship series opening night. That’s because Phil Jackson appeared via satellite to talk about various “situations,” most notably the Laker “coaching situation.”

He said that while he weighs his options there were concerns about his health, the team’s “roster situation” and, of course, the need for everyone to get over the “unusual situation” in which he was let go last summer, then published his diary of the season that included some not-so-nice words about Kobe Bryant.

Even if he didn’t provide any answers, Jackson did at least provide a timetable when he said, “I’ll be off the queue here in another day or two.”

Or maybe it was “off the cue.” Who knows what Jackson was talking about? If he said “queue,” maybe he meant “line,” as in unemployment line, signaling that he’s ready to go back to work.

But the longer this has dragged on -- “the biggest pregnant pause in history,” Jackson called it -- the less sense it makes to hire Jackson. I doubt he has the long-term commitment to stick around until the Lakers are good enough to get him what he really wants, that record-setting 10th championship. And, as great a coach as he is, no amount of incense-burning could deliver this roster to Jerry Buss’ desired destination for next season, the second round of the playoffs.

Maybe the Lakers shouldn’t put so much emphasis on this coaching hire as they should on preparing the team for the next hire.

Let’s face it, coaching in the NBA has become a glorified temp job.

There are only four coaches who have held their current job for more than two years: Jerry Sloan (20 years), Gregg Popovich (nine), Rick Adelman (seven) and Nate McMillan (five).

No wonder Scott Skiles threatened to walk out on the Chicago Bulls unless they guaranteed him an additional $3 million in the event he was fired.

Making the NBA’s Final Four doesn’t do anything for job security. Since 2003, five coaches who reached the conference finals or beyond are no longer with those teams: Byron Scott (2003 NBA Finals, New Jersey Nets), Rick Carlisle (2003 Eastern Conference finals, Detroit), Don Nelson (2003 Western Conference finals, Dallas Mavericks), Flip Saunders (2004 Western Conference finals, Minnesota Timberwolves), and, of course, Jackson last year.

With such short shelf lives, it’s inevitable that the Lakers will be looking for another coach themselves before too long. So why not let Detroit’s Larry Brown tend to his health, then make a play for him in 2007? By then he’ll have the itch to coach (or to coach somewhere other than whatever city he’s in) and the Lakers will have the salary cap space to land a major free agent.

In the interim, there’s another name that’s floating out there: The newest guy in a suit on the Laker bench, Brian Shaw, who would make a fine choice. There’s always the chance that he could turn into a high-grade coach. If not he can leave (hopefully with his negotiated guaranteed money) and have some type of track record to take to his next place of employment.

He already has a history of leadership with the Lakers. When Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal attacked each other through the media just before the 2003-04 season, Shaw came in and at least got them together in the same room to reach a cease-fire accord. He also kept Gary Payton from detonating when his minutes were severely cut in the playoffs.

If the Lakers feel so needy for attention that they have to make the big-name hire in Jackson, perhaps Shaw can broker a truce between Bryant and Jackson.

Shaw could make Bryant see that if he signs off on Phil’s return and the Lakers make it back to the playoffs, Bryant’s damaged rep is repaired.

See, there’s time for all sorts of speculation when Game 1 of the Finals, which the Spurs won, 84-69, is so dreadful.

I apologize for selling the entertaining possibilities of this series in Thursday’s column. You’re now free to resume watching reality shows or summer reruns or even regular-season baseball.

This one was tough to tolerate, until the fourth quarter when it turned into the Manu Ginobili Show.

After both teams spent most of the first 36 minutes struggling to put the ball in the basket, Ginobili sparked a Spur rout when he scored 15 points in the final quarter.

Ginobili flipped shots up with his off hand. He nailed a three-pointer. He even drove for a watch-me-finger-roll-naw-I’m-gonna-dunk-it bucket, the highlight of the game.

“Manu Ginobili did what you saw him do, and that was the difference in the game,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said, apparently addressing all 12 people who were still watching by the fourth quarter.

How you gonna keep the remotes from wandering when the score is stuck at 49-45 for three minutes -- late in the third quarter?

So what can we anticipate in Game 2? Maybe the Lakers will announce their head coach at halftime.

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