Jackson Considers the Draft, Assistants

Phil Jackson set foot into Laker headquarters for the first time since he was back on the payroll, no longer only stopping by for lunches with his girlfriend and idle chitchat with former co-workers.

He took back his old office Wednesday, the one that had been occupied by Rudy Tomjanovich, his successor whom he is now succeeding as long-term Laker coach, and more closely considered those who will fill his coaching staff for next season.

He also had meetings about the draft, where the Lakers will have the No. 10 selection, a spot where a serviceable power forward or point guard could be waiting, although Jackson has never been overly fond of rookies.

His day continued and the paperwork collected at his desk -- free-agent lists, statistics and untold other documents -- and it was almost as if he had never left, although he stopped short of hanging a familiar Native American feather from the sprinkler nozzle in his office.

As he settles in, Jackson will have to make decisions over the coming weeks, probably before an owners’ lockout that looks more certain to arrive July 1.

Frank Hamblen, Kurt Rambis and Brian Shaw are logical candidates to be on the sideline as assistant coaches, and Jackson has mentioned former Chicago Bull All-Star Scottie Pippen as another possibility. Jim Cleamons, who won three championships under Jackson with the Bulls and three more with the Lakers, is believed to be entrenched with the New Orleans Hornets.

Tex Winter makes sense as a consultant, although the 82-year-old triangle-offense guru is in Hungary for two more weeks at a basketball clinic, and his wife, Nancy, could only partly guarantee his knowledge of Tuesday’s news, the reunion heard ‘round the world

“I imagine he knows,” she said. “Although he didn’t take his cellphone with him.”

The Lakers received word from some of their constituents Wednesday, fielding calls from season-ticket holders present, past and perhaps present again.

“We had a couple of people who had canceled their tickets who called to beg us to let them back in,” Laker spokesman John Black said.

And?

“I don’t know what we’re going to do with them,” he said.

There were other calls from those who wanted to start becoming season-ticket holders, names added to a wait list that runs 1,600 deep, Black said.

“It was a good spike,” he said. “Probably more than anything else we got calls from existing season-ticket holders who thought it was great. We’ve got a lot of season-ticket holders who said they were in for next season.”

As surely as June 14 became a date to record this summer, so will July 6, the deadline for season-ticket holders to renew. Season-ticket holders renewed at a 97% rate last season, down from 98% before the 2003-04 season.

Jackson was selected foremost for his coaching record, but the economics of a full and festive Staples Center run deeply through a Laker organization valued at a league-high $510 million by Forbes magazine in December.

An attendance figure indicative of a team that finished 34-48: The Lakers played in front of 12 non-sellout crowds last season, more than the previous four seasons combined.

*

Karl Malone, who played one season with the Lakers and announced his retirement in February, will not consider another run with Jackson and the Lakers, his agent said Wednesday.

“He didn’t leave because Phil left, and he didn’t originally come exclusively for Phil,” said Dwight Manley, Malone’s agent. “I don’t think any of that’s changed. He’s enjoying his retirement.

“He passed up playing in San Antonio and look where they are, so I can’t imagine why he’d come back to the Lakers. Maybe someday he’ll come back in management and coaching, but he’s adamant about not coming back as a player.”

Malone, 41, retired as the league’s second-leading scorer, finishing with 36,928 points, 1,459 behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.