THE JACKSON 8? RUN FOR ANOTHER TITLE VEXES LAKERS COACH.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

Phil Jackson strolls at an easy pace along a downtown Milwaukee avenue and it's as if he's surrounded by nothing but goodwill, fond memories and the comfort of the past.

When he coached the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, Jackson spent much of his leisure time in this clean, quiet, working-class city, an hour's drive from his home in Deerfield, Ill. As Jackson walks and marvels at the architecture and the German cuisine, a string of well-wishing locals offer warm greetings and some encouraging words to their former neighbor.

And even Jackson - winner of seven NBA championships - needed a little of that, as he reflected last week on what has, so far, been a tumultuous Lakers title defense.

``It's too bad,'' he said, ``this hasn't been a more enjoyable season.''

In a wide-ranging interview, Jackson spoke openly about the tensions between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant - and his own future with the franchise amid a season that has made him question his own effectiveness.

But mostly, Jackson offered unfettered optimism. About Kobe and Shaq, about himself, and yes, about the Lakers' ability to win the championship despite everything.

``We can win it all. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we can win it all,'' he said. ``For someone to beat us four times or three times in a series, they've got to have a pretty damn good team to do that, and I don't see any teams that are going to be able to do it out there.''

No, the Lakers' most feared opponent remains the Lakers.

Lack of focus

This team hasn't been as focused as last year's, nor as professional, Jackson said. The chemistry is still wanting. The depth isn't there. And with 13 games left in the regular season, the Lakers (46-23) appear fragile, their coach a little worn down.

``I'm not used to losing a whole lot of games in a season,'' he said. ``The best season I ever had was 72-10 (with the 1995-96 Bulls). And when you have 10 losses in a season ... we've already gone through twice that. Those are tough nights for coaches. I don't know how guys get through a season where they lose 60 games.''

Offseason roster moves made the Lakers appear stronger on paper, but a combination of age, injuries and the well-documented rift between superstars O'Neal and Bryant threw substantial roadblocks in the title defense.

In his new book, ``More than a Game,'' Jackson exudes great pride in pulling O'Neal and Bryant together last season. He poetically describes the dramatic Bryant-to-O'Neal alley-oop in Game 7 of the conference finals as ``a symbol of how far these two young men had come in connecting with each other.''

But then O'Neal came to camp out of shape, Bryant decided to assert his own offensive dominance, and the connection was snapped.

``I wasn't prepared for what happened this year at all,'' Jackson said. ``I didn't think that it would happen. I thought we had a formula. We might get off to a little bit of a late start because we had new chemistry in the starting lineup with (Rick) Fox and Horace (Grant), and Derek Fisher being out, and some new guys on the team, but I didn't think it would be like this.''

Things changed for the worse, despite his efforts. There were private, one-on-one meetings with O'Neal and Bryant, and occasional public castigations of both players.

``I tried to kind of move between both the parties and tried to help the situation out,'' he said. ``It was OK for a while, it stayed underground. But then one thing led to another and it came out and then it got exaggerated.''

Fault for all

Sometimes Jackson sounds as if he's taken O'Neal's side - yes, Bryant has been overaggressive, sometimes to the team's detriment. Other times, he's appeared to take Bryant's side - ``Shaq wasn't in great shape'' to start the season, which hurt the defense, Jackson said.

Jackson warned Bryant early on that his play ``would create kind of a disharmonic kind of feeling in this team.'' He tried, to no avail, to get Bryant to accept a Scottie Pippen-type supporting role. But Jackson was critical, too, of O'Neal's public bashing of Bryant.

It all boiled over in mid-January, and it's taken months to calm the waters again. There was notable progress the last few weeks, as the Lakers won 12 of 15 games in one stretch before injuries to Bryant once again dragged them down.

Searching for signs of a renewed partnership, Jackson saw Bryant and O'Neal working harmoniously - almost to a fault.

``For a while, their communication on the basketball court was stilted, and then they started to make good passes to each other as they did in the last three weeks or so,'' Jackson said. ``I started to see better things coming from both of them. And Kobe's especially been trying hard to do it. ...

``These guys sometimes are trying to pass to each other toomuch, and I'd like them to move it just to the open man and let the offense and the principles behind what we do stand. They're self-conscious about (their relationship) a little bit, and they want to prove it on the court. That's OK. I appreciate their effort.''

As Jackson penned his book with longtime friend and author Charley Rosen, he struggled with how much inside information to disclose. He finally decided to highlight one major incident, in January 2000, in which O'Neal spoke out at a team meeting and accused Bryant of playing selfishly. Five months later they were hugging each other as confetti rained down on the Staples Center court.

``This has been an ongoing situation between these two guys for a long time,'' Jackson said. ``They don't have to be friends. They just can't clash. And the chemistry professionally is what you've got to have. It doesn't have to be likeability or sociability or anything else. It just has to be good working relationships that people can have.''

Right now, ``they're fine,'' he said. Yet the ripples caused by the feud remain.

Harper, a co-captain, veteran of three Bulls championships and trusted Jackson associate, has withdrawn as a team leader, leaving a major void in the locker room. He no longer publicly comments on O'Neal and Bryant, quipping, ``I've got two kids at home.''

``Harp probably pulled back a little bit, because he realized he could be influential last year with Kobe and this year he couldn't,'' Jackson said. ``Obviously sometimes camps are drawn in a situation like this, and Harp's smart enough to know you don't get involved in either camp. That was divisive. We had try and squash that immediately.''

To that end, Jackson met last month with Bryant and apologized for some of his own public criticism.

``I told him I was sorry the way things had gone and I still had great affection for him. But I still have to be the disciplinarian. And he's got to hear it, one way or the other,'' he said. ``I really felt badly about this, that it's not been a joyful season for Kobe. That it's his greatest season as a scorer statistically, but it's not been a happy thing for him.''

Defense is problem

Oddly, the discussions of Bryant and O'Neal all relate to scoring and offensive execution, yet it's the Lakers' lack of defense that's killing them. Their offense ranks at the top of the league. Jackson said both O'Neal and Bryant - two of the team's key defenders - have been guilty of committing too much energy to offense, to the detriment of their defensive effort.

If the bickering and fence-mending, the losing and the general soap-opera atmosphere have worn Jackson down, he isn't saying. Three years remain on his contract. Some of Jackson's friends believe he might coach only another year or two.

``I just have to assess how much coaching I'm able to do, how good my coaching is at the end of the year. I've got time,'' he said. ``The reality is that if I can't be an effective coach of these guys, the mistakes are greater than is necessary, then I'd step back from this job, if it's not in the best interest of the organization or these players.

``... At some level I hope that maybe I don't have to live my life always on a competitive measuring scale, win-loss. But right now this is as good as it gets.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) no caption (Phil Jackson)

(2) Coach Phil Jackson, center, has seen the Lakers title defense tested this season by adversity such as the public feud between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News