DEL-ETED; LAKERS LOWER BOOM ON HARRIS, REMOVE CLASSY COACH FROM TEAM.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

Class isn't conferred on you with your first million or your 60th. It doesn't flow like bubbly from the bottles of Dom Perignon after your first NBA championship or your fifth. The kind of class that was cut loose from the Forum Wednesday cannot be bought or won.

You either have it or you don't.

Goodness knows Del Harris could have mustered enough ammunition to go out with guns blazing after being relieved of his head-coaching duties 12 games into his fifth season with the Lakers.

Then again, goodness is as goodness does, which explains why Harris sat in the Forum on Wednesday and removed the dagger from his heart and did his best to wipe off the fingerprints of owner Jerry Buss and Jerry West. He even forgave his players for their cowardice in preventing the bloodshed.

Though clearly in shock, Harris lent dignity to the funeral proceedings as foreign to Buss as a girlfriend his own age; as alien to this 1999 Lakers team as strength of character and as unfamiliar to the newest Laker, Dennis Rodman, as a nuclear family.

Harris refused to stoop to the level of the bullying Buss - never mind that Buss fussed more over Kobe Bryant becoming a starter and Rodman becoming a Laker than he did over Harris, who was effectively operating without a net with no contract beyond this season.

``If I owned the team, I might make the same decision, in all honesty,'' said Harris, who didn't get mad, he got humble. He gave thanks for ``the opportunity to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. It's as high as you can get in what I do.''

It was all so civil it made you want to cry.

If Harris harbored any hurt feelings - and honestly, how could he not? - he kept them well-hidden underneath a cloak of decency.

At times his speech sounded like a publicist's pitch. Harris called it an honor to have had the chance to work with ``the Big Man'' and Kobe Bryant and Robert Horry and Eddie Jones, too.

Harris always did defend his players. His downfall was that he never really got any public show of support from them in return.

Heaven knows he could have borrowed a page from the behavioral manual of O'Neal and ranted and raved about the injustices. Owners are just like officials, Harris could have wailed, near-sighted and unfit.

He could have gotten in players' faces as former Laker Nick Van Exel was getting into his up until he was traded to Denver.

Harris could have announced that he was ``The Man,'' as Bryant did. Or gone into a funk at the first hint that he wasn't long for the Lakers, as Jones did. Or prayed openly for team unity, as Derek Fisher did.

Instead, Harris tried to be tough without being disrespectful. He acted more like a teacher than a recess monitor. He went for steady over ostentatious. In the end all it got him was a pink slip.

Asked if he thought his firing was fair, Harris gave an answer for the ages.

``It's not a question of fairness,'' he said. ``I think we make a mistake in life assuming everything is going to be fair.''

A level playing field, he went on to suggest, doesn't provide nearly as fertile ground for growth as one seemingly tilted against you. ``You learn and grow through struggles in life,'' Harris said.

The pity was this message left a deeper impression on at least one reporter in the room than it did any of Harris' players. The truth is, the Lakers, losers of their last three and 6-6 in this shortened season, look about as equipped to tackle life's inequities as they do to defend Western Conference champion Utah's pick-and-roll.

Don't take our word for it. Listen to the Worm, who followed Harris to the podium and in an interview session in which he was more subdued than sassy, said of his new teammates, ``You can't bitch and complain when you're making 12 and 15 million dollars a year and not producing. If you're going to win a championship, you've got to go in and look at films, look at players, study the game of basketball, visualize. A lot of guys today don't feel the game of basketball. They just come in and try to be flashy.''

The Lakers have enough flash to light up a sky. What they were lacking was a power forward with an attitude. They got one in Rodman. And if the players were yearning to be free of Harris' half-court game and his long-winded homilies, that wish too has been granted.

The ball is in the players' court. If they continue to underachieve, they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

``If I were our players,'' said a solemn West, ``I'd take a very good look in the mirror.''

O'Neal, who showed up toward the end of the optional practice, said the players had a meeting and did just that. Whether or not they were just primping and preening remains to be seen.

``We didn't make Del look good,'' O'Neal said. ``It's an unfortunate situation.''

And one that probably couldn't be avoided. ``To be candid with you,'' West said, ``I think it was inevitable that it was going to happen.''

But of course. In Southern California about the only thing that doesn't change is the weather. Cheekbones and chests rise and fall. Actors and singers come and go. If attention-deficit disorder is a disease, L.A. wants no part of the cure.

Angelenos want what they want and they expect it yesterday. In the end, Harris' Midwestern sensibilities simply got in the way.

HARRIS' RECORD

Regular Season

Year Team WL Pct

1979-80 Houston 41 41 .500

1980-81 Houston 40 42 .488

1981-82 Houston 46 36 .561

1982-83 Houston 14 68 .171

1987-88 Milwaukee 42 40 .512

1988-89 Milwaukee 49 33 .598

1989-90 Milwaukee 44 38 .537

1990-91 Milwaukee 48 34 .585

1991-92 Milwaukee 8 9 .471

1994-95 Lakers 48 34 .585

1995-96 Lakers 53 29 .646

1996-97 Lakers 56 26 .683

1997-98 Lakers 61 21 .744

1999 Lakers 6 6 .500

Totals 556 457 .549

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color) Del Harris said after being fired that he was glad he had the chance to coach the Lakers.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

(2--Color) Upstaged on his first day in purple and gold, newest Laker Dennis Rodman says he plans to make his debut Friday night against the Clippers.

Evan Yee/Daily News

(3--4--Color) The Lakers plan to interview assistant coaches Kurt Rambis (left) and Larry Drew (right) for the interim head coaching position.

(5) no caption (Del Harris)

BOX: HARRIS` RECORD (see text)