SNUBBED JACKSON NOT SAD SLOAN WAS THE MAN, SAYS LAKERS COACH.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - Their forced vacation over, the Lakers resume pursuit of the NBA championship tonight, armed once again with the time-tested methods of the league's second-best coach.

Phil Jackson pushed, prodded and psyched up the Lakers, coaxing a 67-win season out of a band of former underachievers. But he lost out Wednesday to Orlando Magic rookie Doc Rivers for Coach of the Year honors, as voted by the media.

Just what the Sacramento Kings needed: Jackson snubbed on the eve of Game 2 of the first-round playoff series, his preeminence called into question. But Jackson saved his indignation for someone else's snub.

``I was extremely upset,'' Jackson said, ``because I personally voted in The Sporting News for Jerry Sloan as Coach of the Year.''

In the league-sanctioned vote, Sloan, the Utah Jazz's longtime coach, finished fourth, with two votes.

Rivers, who guided a team of afterthoughts to a 41-41 record, just missing a playoff berth, won the media poll with 60 votes. Jackson was second with 53.

Jackson bested Sloan's Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 Finals and believes his rival deserves more credit.

``He's a guy that's had his team at the top for the last decade and has never won Coach of the Year,'' Jackson said. ``And he's taken a group of aging veterans that everybody's claimed was on their last legs three years ago and has again manufactured over a 50-win season. . . . That he would get (only) two votes is absolutely ludicrous.''

Charlotte's Paul Silas got three votes. Getting one vote each were Miami's Pat Riley, Phoenix's Scott Skiles and Toronto's Butch Carter.

``I think we're all pretty surprised,'' Kobe Bryant said. ``We felt like (Jackson) had it in the bag, really. But Doc did an excellent job with that ballclub down there. I don't think anybody expected them to have the season that they had. So he deserves it.''

Then again, few predicted the season the Lakers have had - a league-best record, second all-time in franchise history. Winning streaks of 16 and 19 games. A sustained dominance long expected but never seen when the team was coached by Del Harris or Kurt Rambis.

``I think P.J.'s the perfect fit for this team, what this team needed,'' Bryant said. ``He's very sharp on the court. Off the court, he understood people, he knew how to talk to people and how to relate to people.''

The tasks handed to Jackson and Rivers were starkly different, ``apples and oranges,'' as Jackson noted.

Jackson's charge was to take a winning team with two superstars, Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, and forge it into championship material. Rivers just missed the playoffs despite starting four players who went undrafted by the NBA.

``The Lakers are going to win basketball games and it's just a matter of at what level are they going to play,'' Jackson said. ``So in one area, you're talking about working with talent, in another area, you're talking about working with potential, and Doc as brought potential out in these players, which is big. . . . Doc did a great job.''

To Bryant, it appeared Jackson was penalized for having better players.

``It's kind of funny, because if a coach struggles, it's, `Man he doesn't know how to handle all that talent.' Then when a team wins, it's all, `Well yeah, it's talent.' So it's kind of a catch-22 situation. But I don't think P.J. cares about it much, to be honest with you.''

Jackson indicated as much, joking with reporters, ``You guys are the ones that vote for it, why should I care one way or the other?''

As the Lakers look to go up 2-0 in their first-round playoff series - following a three-day break - Glen Rice said the team can get Jackson a better award than Coach of the Year.

``I don't understand how he didn't get it,'' Rice said, ``but we can go out and get the championship for him.''

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