<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">EL SEGUNDO - Ever since his nights as the blood-and-guts forward in the Clark Kent glasses, his mere presence on the basketball court has made old Lakers-watchers feel young. Kurt Rambis made it happen again Monday. The occasion was Rambis' return from the front office to be an assistant coach -- joining Frank Hamblen's staff along with Brian Shaw -- for the rest of a season many Lakers fans are ready to give up on. "I think this team is capable of playing a lot better than it is right now," Rambis said, leaning on a ball rack next to the Lakers' practice floor. And suddenly it felt as if there's a little more promise in the after-the-All-Star-break phase of this post-Shaquille O'Neal season, the two-month playoff push that begins when the Lakers play host to the Boston Celtics tonight at Staples Center. Maybe you'd decided the situation was hopeless. You'd accepted that the Lakers, without Shaq, without Karl Malone and Gary Payton and without Phil Jackson to guide them, had found their level and it was mediocrity. You'd accepted that the Lakers, clinging by their fingernails to the Western Conference's eighth and last playoff spot and facing a brutal schedule, were going to be sitting home in May and June. You'd accepted that the Lakers were just killing time until a new head coach and superstar swoop in to make them contenders again. You'd given up on '05. Then you should have heard Rambis talking Monday as he assumed the assistant-coaching duties he accepted last week.</div> Source
