By Rob Miech

Sat, Oct 11, 2008 (2:01 a.m.)

Associated Press

Reggie Theus

Reggie Theus learned all he needed to know about work ethic from his late father, Felix, who ran a custodial business in South-Central Los Angeles.

Felix Theus coaxed the youngest of his four children to work with him, cleaning offices and other buildings, when Reggie was in junior high school.

“He always talked about hard work,” said Theus, a former UNLV basketball star who coaches the Sacramento Kings.

“He knew I didn’t want to do that for a living, but he thought it wouldn’t hurt me to learn. They were lessons I didn’t even think I was listening to when he was telling me.”

Felix already had divorced his wife, Billie, when he suffered a fatal heart attack at 59. Reggie was in high school. Two older sisters were living with Reggie under Felix’s roof. Reggie’s older brother was returning from the Vietnam War.

All four kept the custodial business in operation.

“After my dad passed, it got serious,” said Theus. “It was something we had to do, at that point.

“I have had every job I ever wanted, and I was able to achieve all that by the same mechanics I learned from my dad … it’s all interconnected. Things are not given to you. You have to get them.”

Theus will bring his Kings into an arena in which his No. 23 jersey hangs Sunday at 6 p.m. when Sacramento plays the Los Angeles Lakers in a preseason game at the Thomas & Mack Center.

With 1,177 career points over three seasons, he is 21st on UNLV’s career scoring chart.

He turns 51 on Monday. If the pressure of not having a guaranteed contract past this season bothered Theus, he didn’t let on in a phone interview.

Asked which is tougher, coaching the fictional Deering High hoops team on the old NBC show “Hang Time” or the Kings, Theus unleashed a deep laugh Friday afternoon.

“That’s pretty funny,” he said. “I can manage a script. The outcome is planned. In some ways, though, they’re both pretty hard.”

He has a list of more than a dozen credits on his thespian resume, but Theus has always been serious about coaching.

At a Lakers game years ago at Staples Center in Los Angeles, he once bumped into a reporter who queried him about his burgeoning broadcasting career.

He dismissed the talk, saying he has always wanted to coach.

“I evolved into ‘that guy,’ ” Theus said. “I’m glad I had a chance to do some other things. So when I decided coaching was something I really wanted to do, it didn’t matter how I got there.”

He was a volunteer assistant at a Division-II school. He coached AAU summer ball. He coached the semi-pro Slam in Las Vegas. He assisted Rick Pitino at Louisville for two seasons.

Two incredible seasons.

“Anybody who knows coach Pitino knows two years is like seven years, because of his work ethic,” Theus said. “I believe you’re always where you’re supposed to be, at that moment.

“That’s where I was supposed to be. He gave me perspective. He helped me build a blueprint for all the knowledge I had. If I had stayed in college, fine.”

He didn’t. Two years into his first head coaching gig at New Mexico State, the Maloof brothers and Sacramento president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie hired him as the Kings’ coach.

Sacramento went 38-44, missing the playoffs by a dozen wins, under Theus last season.

“I learned the machinery,” Theus said. “I learned the protocols. I became a better communicator. From a technical standpoint, I give too much. I had to learn what not to say all over again.”

The man who scored 19,015 points during an NBA career in which he played for 16 coaches over 13 seasons harkened back to his glory days, when he watched coaches.

He watched those coaches on the other side of the court all last season.

“Good coaches are all very similar, in their idealisms and work ethics and personalities,” Theus said. “The ones who were not good coaches all had very similar personality flaws.

“They all had other agendas, in terms of ego. They internalize things. They didn’t deal with people very well.”

Theus has changed gears a bit this season, which could be his last. It is rare when a coach at an elite college or in the professional ranks does not have security at least through the next campaign.

But that’s where Theus is, as the Kings hold an option for the 2009-10 season. In essence, he is a lame duck, a bull’s-eye of a label for any coach.

How did he respond? By installing the rest of the pieces of the intricate triangle offense, which has been mastered by Lakers coach Phil Jackson and whose father is Tex Winter.

It’s all about reads by smart players who take what defenses give them.

“It’s an advanced version of what we’re already doing,” Theus said. “It’s two or three levels further. It has many names, by the way. It’s the ultimate in continuity.

“My job is to put the players in the best spots so they can play their best. Coaches don’t create magic. Players create magic.”

His contract? Theus admitted, yep, it’s a bit uncomfortable.

“But I have worked my ass off for everything I’ve ever gotten,” he said. “If we do anything that shows improvement, that I wasn’t just a one-hit thing from last season, I think it’ll happen if it’s supposed to happen.

“If not, it won’t.”

Spoken like the blue-collar son of a custodial worker.