CHRISTMAS SPIRIT ON THE SIDELINES JACKSON, RILEY ARE NOT AS ADVERSARIAL AS IN YEARS PAST.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

MIAMI - He compared the game being played to football and asked when two-hand touch became a part of basketball. He likened his Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls to a stable of thoroughbreds and the New York Knicks to a team of plow horses.

As if that wasn't enough, Phil Jackson then described the 1992 Eastern Conference semifinals as ``excruciating'' and asked if, maybe, the suits in the NBA office weren't ``licking their chops'' to see the series go to seven games.

None of which sat well with then-Knicks coach Pat Riley, who fired back with a withering attack made all the more memorable now that Jackson and Riley will come full circle today when the Lakers take on the Miami Heat in a second consecutive Christmas showdown.

``What he's doing is insulting us, basically,'' Riley said back in 1992. ``I was part of six championship teams. I've been to the Finals 13 times. I know what championship demeanor is all about. The fact that he's whining and whimpering about officiating is an insult to how hard our guys are playing and how much our guys want to win.

``That's what championship teams are about. They've got to take on all comers. They can't whine about it.''

Long before Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant started sniping at one another, Jackson and Riley engaged in their own war of words. The games that followed, as former Bulls forward Horace Grant so aptly described, were like World Wrestling Federation matches.

Now the two 60-year-old coaches are embarking on the final challenges of their careers, with glowing things to say about one another. And if there is a thawing between Jackson and Riley, there just might be hope for Bryant and O'Neal someday as well.

``It's evolved to the point where we don't insult each other as much as we did before,'' Jackson said.

After conceding that he and Jackson don't know each other and probably never will, Riley said a ``genuine respect'' does exist between the two coaches, with 13 NBA championships, nearly 2,000 victories and two best-selling books between them.

``He's right there with (Red) Auerbach and you've got to give him his kudos,'' Riley said of Jackson and his nine titles. ``He's done something remarkable and has an opportunity to do something even more.''

Bryant said he can remember watching Jackson's and Riley's teams do battle in the 1990s. It was the clash of styles that was most appealing, Bryant said, from Jackson's triangle offense and Zen philosophy to Riley's push-and-shove approach.

``It's cool to be a part of history having two great coaches go head-to-head,'' Bryant said.

That both Riley and Jackson - one the coach of the '80s, the other the coach of the '90s - are on such a stage today is remarkable, considering where they were this time a year ago.

After parting ways with the Lakers, Jackson spent Christmas with his kids in San Francisco, playing a board game and peeling onions for dinner. He was just about the only one not watching the NBA's highest-rated regular-season game in seven years.

Riley, meanwhile, could only celebrate having acquired O'Neal. The Heat beat the Lakers 104-102 in overtime that day, winning their 11th consecutive game, and appeared to be an unstoppable force in the Eastern Conference. With Stan Van Gundy coaching and Riley as team president, the Heat finished 61-21 and was minutes away from the franchise's first-ever spot in the NBA Finals, but couldn't finish off the Detroit Pistons with O'Neal and Dwyane Wade both hurting.

The Lakers headed in the opposite direction, finishing a disastrous 34-48 and out of the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. By the end of the season, the Christmas game was a forgotten memory, as Bryant was lost to a sprained ankle and Rudy Tomjanovich resigned as coach.

But last summer, the wheels were set in motion for both Jackson and Riley to return to the sidelines. Jackson was brought back as Lakers coach, vowing to restore the franchise to respectability. Then, in an interview, Riley would not rule out a return to coaching and uttered the fateful words: ``I've stayed way in the background. I may take more of an active participation.''

When they crossed paths at summer league in July, Jackson had one question for Riley: ``Do you really want to coach again?''

Riley said no then, but took over when Van Gundy resigned earlier this month. The Heat has won four of six games under Riley, even though he admits it may take six weeks to ``get connected'' on what he wants to do.

``He's infused them with energy and you can see the difference with how they're playing,'' Jackson said, later adding, ``Sometimes when the principal comes down to the classroom, everybody behaves a little better.''

Riley returns the praise in Jackson's direction. The Lakers (15-11) will enter today's game with a better record than the Heat and have won nine of their last 11 games. They are only a game out of first place in the Pacific Division.

``The last couple of weeks,'' Riley said, ``it looks as though the team is really finding a real identity as to how they're playing and understanding what it is he (Jackson) wants.''

No matter if they ever become friends, Jackson and Riley can enjoy their shared identity with the Lakers. By the end of the three years he is under contract to coach, Jackson will have spent eight seasons with the Lakers, one fewer than Riley with the Lakers and one fewer than Jackson with the Bulls.

And Riley admitted Saturday that he probably always will be associated with the Lakers first, thanks to the Showtime days.

``I've had success since, but not like that,'' Riley said. ``So I think, definitely, I'm still living off that big-time.''

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) When he was coach of the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson and Pat Riley were heated rivals. Now they have a mutual respect.

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

(2 -- color) JACKSON

(3 -- color) RILEY

Box:

(1) MATCHUP

(2) LAKERS vs. MIAMI