Opposing coaches and players approach Lakers coach Del Harris
gingerly—"like I have a terminal illness," he says. Through
Sunday, Los Angeles had won 16 of its last 18 games and
completed a 4-0 swing through the Eastern Conference, yet
Harris's future was in doubt, hinging on how deep into the
postseason he could take a team with a nucleus of players whose
average age is 25.6. Would only a championship save him? Would a
trip to the NBA Finals be enough? Would an appearance in the
Western Conference finals allow him keep his job?
Curiously, Harris is not the only top coach facing an uncertain
future. Phil Jackson of the Bulls, George Karl of the Sonics and
Jerry Sloan of the Jazz must either mend relations with their
front offices or make impressive playoff runs to keep their
jobs. These coaches had four of the league's five best records
at week's end, and each had a trip to the Finals on his resume.
"I'm comfortable with whatever happens," Harris says. "Maybe it
sounds idealistic, but whenever one door closes for me, another
seems to open."
Fox (17) believes the gifted but youthful Lakers lack the
resolve necessary to win the championship.
(John W. McDonough)
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Though at times the Lakers show an appalling inability to play
team basketball, their talent is second to none. Harris
recognizes, however, that athleticism is not enough. "There are
a lot of talented people in prison," he says. "There are
talented people who can't hold a job. In many ways the tag of
'talent' is a curse for us. You need a certain number of
disappointments before you realize that opportunities don't come
that often. You need a measure of maturity before you start
setting aside individual goals, because they don't matter—only
winning does."
Harris can't understand why people in the basketball world
aren't more patient. "Four or five years ago, everyone was
saying Jerry Sloan was boring," he says. "They said Utah would
never get to the Finals with Karl Malone and John Stockton.
Three or four years ago, they had given up on Seattle—there was
no way they'd get back to the top with George Karl. But look
what happened when those franchises stayed with it. We took away
most of Utah's main plays last season in the playoffs, but
because the Jazz know each other so well, they found ways to
beat us with 10 seconds on the shot clock."
Lakers forward Rick Fox, who played alongside veterans Larry
Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish on the Celtics, believes
his current teammates lack the concentration needed to take a
title. "I'm worried about it," he says. "We all should be. We
don't do the same things night in and night out. Sometimes we're
great in the half-court, but the next night we're terrible.
Championship teams get to the point where execution is second
nature. We don't have that."
How can L.A. compensate for a shortage of experience? "We have
to be hungrier," says 19-year-old Kobe Bryant. "That makes up
for a lot. But I don't doubt this team. We'll get there one day.
It's not a matter of if but when."
That is of little solace to Harris, for whom it's probably now
or never.
Issue date: April 13, 1998
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