Triangle time is short too

[kris]

EL SEGUNDO -- Sometime in the next two weeks, they will watch the last seconds of an era tick away, and in the emotion-filled moments that follow, the Lakers will pull each other close for warm embraces, heartfelt thank-yous and misty-eyed good-byes.

Chances are, no one will say much to the oddly shaped fellow who accompanied them all year, the dude with the sharp edges and the fine lines who guided them through all the championships, maintained order on the basketball court and made sure everyone got their touches.

How do you say good-bye to a triangle, anyway?

A bit of sentimental geometry (or geometric sentimentality?) will soon be in order because however the NBA Finals end -- with a Lakers championship or a Detroit upset -- chances are the triangle offense will soon be headed the way of the slide rule and the two-handed set shot.

Phil Jackson is a coach without a contract, and friends say he's not optimistic about returning to the Lakers. If he goes, Jackson's coaching staff and its vast triangle experience probably goes with him.

No other NBA team runs Tex Winter's famed offense, though it's been associated with nine of the past 13 championships.

So, it's the end of the triple-post offense as we know it?

"I would say so," Winter said wistfully, "as we know it anyway.

"Unless it is somebody that has been on this staff and has been with us for a number of years, I'm not so sure that I know of any coach necessarily that knows how to teach it the way we do. In the final analysis, it's the way we break things down, the way we present it to the team, the way we teach it that counts."

The complex system, which begins with the formation of a triangle by three players on the strong side of the offense, is noted for its flexibility, helpful spacing, ball movement and, of course, its egalitarian bent.

Michael Jordan once mocked the system as an "equal-opportunity offense" before he learned to love it and thrive in it. As Winter and Jackson teach it, the system is about reading and reacting, giving players the ability to counter every defense without turning to the bench for play calls from the coach. And every player, regardless of talent level, is always involved.

The Chicago Bulls won six championships in the 1990s behind Jordan's flair, Jackson's leadership and Winter's principled offense.

"I don't think we'd have won championships without Michael," Winter said, "but I don't think we'd have won it without the triangle either, without the team concept. And I think Michael would be the first to tell you that."

Kobe Bryant has called the offense "boring," and no other Laker breaks out of the system as recklessly, but he still attributes the team's success to it. Role players such as Robert Horry, Rick Fox and Derek Fisher thrived under the system as the Lakers won three consecutive championships.

It's just that, for whatever reason, the triangle never caught on anywhere else. Unlike football's West Coast offense, which spread through the NFL after the San Francisco 49ers rode it to five titles, the triangle remains an oddity, not a trend.

Lakers assistant Jim Cleamons, who was also on the Bulls' staff, tried to install the triangle when he became the Dallas Mavericks coach in 1996. Cleamons and the offense were gone barely a year later, though the Mavericks' failure had more to do with the rapid-fire breakup of a dysfunctional roster than anything else.

Bulls general manager Jerry Krause was so enamored of the triangle that he ordered it to be retained, along with Winter, when Tim Floyd replaced Jackson in 1998. Chicago continued to run it until new coach Scott Skiles scrapped it this season.

"To be honest with you, I was quite sad that the Bulls didn't stay with it longer," said Winter, who still sells copies of his book, "The Triple-Post Offense," to interested parties and teaches it to whoever will listen.

To Winter's knowledge, the only other team running the offense is Kansas State, where he was once coach himself. Wildcats coach Jim Wooldridge brought the offense to K-State after spending two seasons working under Floyd.

But in the NBA, no one touches it.

"I'm not sure they understand it that well," Winter said. "I think they bastardize it. ... They'll run a part of it."

Said Jackson: "There's been valiant attempts by various people to use it. But it's a dedication, and you've got to teach, build up skills and you've got to be willful about guys staying with it. And really, it's what Michael Jordan once called an 'equal-opportunity offense,' and the NBA is not an equal-opportunity profession."

It's possible Jackson will take a one-year sabbatical, then return to the NBA elsewhere and bring back Winter's offense. He's convinced in any case that it will not fade into basketball oblivion.

"Oh no, those things don't go away. They keep reviving," Jackson said. "You see systems come back all the time."

But Winter, 82, can't help but be a little sad to consider the offense could be on its way out.

"The thing I'm proudest of, of course, is the legacy," he said, "and it's what I strived to do. It's a legacy that I can leave when I leave coaching."