Jackson Could Add a Chapter

Whoops.

Anyone down for a do-over?

As another man with multiple championship rings apparently makes his way out of Lakerland, taking with him another piece of the facade that masked a crumbling organization, it’s quite possible the Lakers’ best hope for the future comes from their recent past: Phil Jackson. That was the name swirling around Staples Center on Tuesday night.

It sounds like a twisted tabloid cover, doesn’t it?

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As implausible as this might seem, choosing Jackson to fill a sudden, mysterious void created by Rudy Tomjanovich would actually make sense for everyone involved ... except Phil Jackson. But if the Lakers are willing to resume where negotiations left off a year ago -- somewhere around $10 million -- it would almost be worth his while. At the very least, he could gather some great epilogue material for the paperback version of “The Last Season.”

One of Jackson’s confidants laughed at me when I mentioned the possibility of a Jackson homecoming Tuesday. (Jackson is somewhere in the Australian Outback right now.)

But there’s a lot of logic to it.

Jerry Buss has watched his Lakers diminish into what he’d always dreaded: just another team. You could see it in the pockets of empty seats and occasional empty suites in Staples Center for Tuesday night’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. For weeks, arena employees have bemoaned the lack of buzz at Laker games.

If Jackson comes back to the franchise whose inner workings he just detailed, Buss’ Lakers are once again the story in sports.

Kobe Bryant’s image has been shredded -- thanks in part to Jackson’s book -- and what better way for him to look like a good guy than by endorsing the return of the prodigal father?

Could Bryant do it? Could he coexist with the man who tore him up in print?

Here’s one indication: Last week he manned up, broke the ice and we had our first cordial conversation in almost a year. And I’ve written much worse things about him than Jackson ever did.

After their much-needed break from each other, it didn’t take long for Bryant to see that Jackson’s ways weren’t all that bad. He even endorsed a return to the triangle offense one-third of the way through this season, when he saw that he could get the ball in advantageous positions with a little operating room instead of trying to dribble against a steady stream of double coverage.

You could line up a parade of talking heads to analyze why fans were more forgiving of Bryant when he was accused of sexual assault in 2003 than when he was accused of running off Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal and alienating Karl Malone in 2004. No one ever said sports fans were rational. But coming out in favor of Jackson would get Kobe off one of those hooks.

The problem is, coaches’ second acts at the same location rarely if ever go as well as their first. Ask Joe Gibbs how much he’s enjoying his return to the Washington Redskin sidelines.

Jackson’s standards are impossible for anyone to recapture -- even himself. He won’t go to four NBA Finals in five years again. So why risk losing the damage to his mystique, let alone his stellar playoff winning percentage?

Because the Lakers aren’t in position to win.

What’s sad is that Tomjanovich’s resignation or retirement or health sabbatical or whatever you want to call it isn’t a killer blow to the season. It’s the latest indication of a franchise adrift, a meandering show desperately in need of a strong script and an authoritative director.

It’s the reverberation of a shock wave that began with the exodus of Jerry West in 2000.

Now we see the magnitude of the failure to extend Jackson’s contract before the 2003-04 season began. Both sides indicated they were close when training camp began in 2003. But the longer they lingered without a deal, the more defiant Kobe Bryant became, fully aware that if it came down to a choice between him and Jackson, Buss would bet his future on the talented young guard.

That caused Jackson, in turn, to become increasingly intolerant of Bryant and made it a me-or-him-issue, and the Lakers chose, as O’Neal would say, him. The team’s last offer was removed from the table shortly thereafter and Jackson was a lame duck.

If they had kept Jackson, they’d have a coach now. They wouldn’t be searching all over again just halfway through the first season after.

Of course, that wouldn’t even begin to solve their problems, because they have a patchwork roster that isn’t equipped to compete for a championship.

When they traded O’Neal to the Miami Heat they got a complementary Caron Butler, a gimpy Brian Grant and an inconsistent Lamar Odom, who needs to have the offense run through him to flourish.

They counted on an aging Vlade Divac to be their presence in the middle. He couldn’t even make it to the start of training camp before he got hurt.

And they ignored the recent injury history of Bryant in making the team so dependent on him. Believe it or not, O’Neal played in more games than Bryant in three of the last five seasons and is on track to do so again this year.

The Lakers have been slowly adrift. If hiring Tomjanovich was all part of some master plan to attract Yao Ming when he becomes a free agent in two years, that plan’s out the window too. Yao has said, “Rudy is like a father,” but now the Lakers can’t include “come to papa” among their recruiting pitches.

Tomjanovich isn’t officially gone yet. Odds are that’s because the Lakers hadn’t finalized the buyout terms for the rest of his five-year, $30-million contract. One Laker staffer said the announcement would come today. Tomjanovich has to go now, just because it got this far. He can’t command the locker room if the players think he’ll bail on them at any minute.

It’s time for the next coach. Even if it’s the ex-coach.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/Adande.