MIKE FRATELLO: Courtside Manners

After seven seasons coaching the Atlanta Hawks, Mike Fratello is in his second season as an NBA announcer, serving as an analyst for NBC and for Clipper games on KCOP. Fratello will be courtside at the Sports Arena Christmas Day when the Clippers play host to the Lakers on NBC, the Clippers’ first major network telecast since they moved to Los Angeles in 1984. On Thursday, Fratello will join Bill Walton and Ralph Lawler when KCOP airs a game between the Clippers and Utah Jazz.

Fratello discussed the latest happenings with the Clippers and Lakers, and speculation over his future, with Times Staff Writer Steven Herbert.

How do you explain the Clippers’ record this season? They have had high draft choices and so many players brought in as the savior or the last piece in the puzzle, yet they are still struggling.

There are a combination of things. As a non-playoff team trying to work your way into the playoffs, it’s pretty darn hard to decide where there’s an opening to make it in. Coming into the season, the Clippers are one of those teams on the outside trying to get in. You look at it and say there’s only one opening and three close teams--Dallas, Seattle and the Clippers vying for it. That’s where you start from.

Then you enter the fact a major trade was done to bring in a part that they (Clipper officials) thought was a very integral part, and that was the Doc Rivers trade.

Unfortunately, for whatever the reasons, Rivers misses the entire training camp, misses (learning) the system, misses getting his body and legs in gear on time. You have to give him a fair amount of time to get back with it.

Maybe even worse than that, which doesn’t pop up immediately, is the fact that you’re bringing him in to be your leader with the basketball, and whenever you bring a guy in new to a system and put him in that spot it makes it doubly hard, because not only is his game affected, but it directly affects the other four people on the court, because he’s the one who has to get them the ball at the right spot, at the right time.

(Then) you take the Charles Smith injury. Some people consider him to be the best player on the team. On any team in the NBA that loses its best player, there’s going to be a significant drop-off in what the team is capable of doing.

How far can the Lakers go without Earvin (Magic) Johnson?

That’s hard to say. Their regular season record may be very respectable because of the nucleus, guys like (James) Worthy, (Sam) Perkins, Byron Scott, A.C. Green. There’s no question that Sedale Threatt has given them a tremendous lift.

But when you get to the playoffs, that’s probably where you’ll see Magic missed the most. You’re playing against the best teams in every game in a concentrated period of time.

What is it about the Lakers? It seems everything they do goes right, with the acquisition of Sedale Threatt being the latest example. Is there any secret to their front-office success?

I don’t think there are any secrets. It’s a combination of hard work, doing your homework and having the ability to make the right decision.

The key is a line of communication. Everybody has an understanding of what we need, where we’re going to go, how we want this to happen. They’ve set about doing it in a well-organized, methodically planned-out type of manner.

There always seems to be a lot of rumors about you coming back to coaching. Do you ever see yourself returning to coaching?

That all is based on the circumstance--the time, place, what, if any, openings there are. Right now, there are no openings. If, at the end of the year or whatever time it is that a change takes place, someone were interested enough to call me and ask me about the position, we’d have to evaluate it and make the decision at that time. I don’t think that’s something that you can say you’re looking down the road for.

So much of this league is timing--right time, right place, right situation. Right means it’s right for that person. What’s right for one person may not be right for the other person. Some people wait for too much rightness and that doesn’t come along. The perfect situation doesn’t come open usually because those guys usually win a lot of games.

A lot of people complain about coaches, but they usually don’t understand how hard a job it is. How would you explain to someone how difficult a job it is to coach in the NBA?

That’s a great question because it’s so hard to answer that. There are so many up times, but you have your tough times as well. There’s something to being a member of a complete team and trying to accomplish the same thing.

It is a tough profession, but if you asked most of these guys, (they’d say) down deep inside they do really love it.

The Clippers play the Lakers Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. on NBC and the Utah Jazz Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on KCOP.