You can go home again -- in the NBA

Wednesday, February 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) -- You can go home again -- in the NBA, anyway. Just pack a thick skin, a better team than the one you left behind, and most important, have somewhere better to go when it's time to leave again.

Phil Jackson proved that Tuesday night. He brought a Los Angeles Lakers team back to the town where he helped put six championship banners into the rafters and heaped yet one more loss on the still-rebuilding Bulls, 88-76.

The difference between Jackson and all the other coaches who beat the Bulls these past two seasons is that he did it to standing ovations. Coming and going. "It was," Jackson said, smiling afterward, "special for me."

It was special for Chicago, too, but not because it was the first time Jackson set foot back in the building since owner Jerry Reinsdorf let general manager Jerry Krause clean house at the end of the 1997-98 season. The only time the old crowd gets together anymore is to win ESPYs, not championships. Jackson was the first one chased off. Half a year later, Michael Jordan left, just ahead of the strike-shortened season. And then, like an engine seizing up and throwing parts all over the road, the supporting cast -- Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper, Luc Longley, Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler and a handful of assistant coaches -- was flung to the far corners of the league.

One by one, the players came back through Chicago with their new teams to be remembered, cheered briefly, and to pick up the sixth and final championship ring. Jackson got his last May 5, at a ceremony during halftime of the last game of the regular season. He got a place in the rafters, too, a banner carrying his name, honoring his years of coaching service and his won-lost record, the league's best ever. And from his unfamiliar seat on the visiting bench Tuesday night, every time Jackson turned his head to the right and looked up, there it was, close by Jordan's.

Jackson said it was a disorienting kind of night, and he was right. It was even hard to figure out whether Jackson was serious when he thanked the Bulls for a muted pre game introduction, for "not doing anything extra.â€ Jackson said he is over the Bulls, and why doubt him? He has a five-year $30 million contract, a house by the sea, a general manager he can live with and loads more talent than Chicago is going to see in a long, long time. Maybe not as much talent as he once had here, but more than just about any other coach in the NBA.

And Jackson was reminded of that, too, every time he lowered his gaze from the ceiling to the court. Also to his right, at the end of the Bulls bench just a few yards away was Tim Floyd, who wound up taking his place and hasn't had an easy go of it.

Tuesday night was no different. For three quarters, the Bulls played the kind of defense that is earning Floyd a reputation, but not much else. Then the hack-a-Shaq strategy backfired. The Lakers big man made all but one of his free throws down the stretch, finishing an astonishing 11-of-12 from the line. Rick Fox scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, but the firepower could have come from Kobe Bryant, Glen Rice or someone else from that embarrassment of riches that Jackson inherited with the Lakers job.

He might not be a bitter man, but he is a proud one. Krause gave Jackson his first job and he gave his old boss six championships in all. But by the end of the run, Krause and Jackson were always giving each other the needle, too. There is little doubt who is scoring all the hits at the moment.

Last weekend, as coach of the All-Star team, Jackson even took off after old rival Jeff Van Gundy of the Knicks -- "a fly on the wall," he called him. Then, Jackson turned his attention to Krause, saying he fashioned "himself as the Branch Rickey of professional basketball." It wasn't Latrell Sprewell going back to Golden State and talking about crushing his old team, coached at the time by victim-turned-television analyst P.J. Carlesimo. But Krause had a convenient prior commitment when Jackson's Los Angeles-based wrecking crew came through.

In the end, the Lakers added very little insult to injury. But as they packed up, the Lakers were leaving town 38-11. The one staying behind was 10-38. As Jackson was reminded, Chicago might still a nice place to visit, but who'd want to coach there? ------ Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The AssociatedPress. Write to him at jlitkeap.org