Lakers Ask for Phil’s Hand

Phil Jackson does not know if he is going to coach the Lakers again, but this much has become crystal clear -- the Lakers want Jackson.

Laker assistant general manager Jim Buss told Jackson earlier this week that the Lakers wanted him to return, effectively turning a two-way street -- Jackson needed to warm up to the Lakers and the Lakers needed to warm up to him -- into a one-way avenue.

Jim Buss told Jackson he was speaking for himself, General Manager Mitch Kupchak and his father, Laker owner Jerry Buss.

Last month, Jerry Buss said he had not determined if he wanted Jackson back, an issue that has now been resolved. It is decidedly up to Jackson, with the Lakers awaiting a firm answer.

If Jackson agrees to return, negotiations would not be difficult, team vice president and minority owner Magic Johnson said last week. Jerry Buss said last month he was willing to pay relatively close to $10 million annually for a coach.

Appearing in a TV interview Thursday before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Jackson told ABC his decision whether to coach next season would come soon, saying it was time to get “off the queue here in another day or two.”

“This is the biggest pregnant pause in history, waiting for me to make a decision about this,” he said. “It was about health and getting through about four batteries of tests to make sure that things didn’t happen that were similar to other situations here in L.A. that happened with Rudy Tomjanovich last year.

“There have been some other things that have held it up but we’re kind of narrowing it down now. I know these teams have to have an answer.”

A source close to Jackson softened his “day or two” timeline but said Jackson would have to decide “sooner than later, because a number of people and a number of organizations are waiting.”

Jackson has been pursued by the Lakers and New York Knicks. The Sacramento Kings also made inquiries, as did the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jackson told the Cavaliers he was not interested.

Jackson has analyzed the plusses and minuses of the Laker roster in a meeting with Kupchak and has had a casual phone conversation with Kobe Bryant, but Bryant does not want a face-to-face meeting because he is concerned he would be blamed if Jackson did not take the job, regardless of Jackson’s reasons.

Brian Shaw, a Laker assistant coach last season and a teammate of Bryant’s for three championship runs, said Bryant and Jackson could work out differences that stem from Jackson’s critiques of Bryant in a tell-all book released last October.

Shaw also said Jackson was the “best coach for the situation.”

“It’s my gut [feeling] and it’s what I hope for,” Shaw said. “I think it would be good for Kobe and I think it would be good for Phil. The friction, static, they can put it behind them.”

If Jackson decides not to coach next season, he will not work as a consultant or in other non-coaching capacities for any team, a source close to Jackson said.

Jackson said Thursday he had made a commitment to talk “first and foremost” with the Lakers about their job opening, with his other pursuers forming a line behind them if he decides to coach again.

He also offered an alternative reason for the “pregnant pause.”

“I think most of all, it’s about the most unusual situation I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Having a situation almost a year ago where we changed directions -- the Lakers went on and made some different moves and I sat back from coaching for a year -- it takes a while just to even get used to the thought.”

Jackson was told by Jerry Buss last June that the Lakers would not be extending his contract in a meeting that Jackson described in his book as sudden and unnerving.

In an interview last month with The Times, Jackson referred to the Laker roster as unappealing, underachieving and salary-cap strapped. He also said injured centers Vlade Divac and Brian Grant each needed to “earn his lunch money.”

But Jackson likes the potential of Lamar Odom and Caron Butler, and he knows he gets a top-notch one-on-one player in Bryant.

The Lakers are more than $20 million over the salary cap for next season without including the cost of signing their first-round draft pick, No. 10 overall. They also might pick up a $5.4-million option for Divac for next season.