EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) Lawrence Frank turned to his bench and hollered for Kerry Kittles to get back in the game, doubling back a second later with a displeased look as Kittles was slow to get up.

``You wanna play?'' the raspy-voiced coach yelled at the seven-year veteran, prompting Kittles to giddy-up the rest of the way to the scorer's table.

That scene was just one example of the New Jersey Nets showing their respect to a man whose presence is _ to be polite _ less than imposing. Yet Frank, who set an NBA record by winning his first 13 games, already commands attention.

Frank's work ethic and knowledge of the game earned that respect _ something the 5-foot-8 coach set out to do from the moment he first took the job.

On the afternoon in mid-January when the Nets fired coach Byron Scott, Frank called each of his players into a meeting. One by one, he told them what he expected from them _ and spelled out what they can expect from him

``You know right away if somebody can do something or can't. And right away, he knew what he was doing from A to Z,'' Nets guard Hubert Davis said.

That trait _ knowing what he wants to do _ has been part of Frank's makeup since his early teens, when he was cut from his high school basketball team. He volunteered to be the team manager, harboring a desire to become a coach.

When Frank, who is Jewish, wasn't leading a Catholic Youth Organization team that included boyhood friend Andy Miller (now Kevin Garnett's agent), he was delivering newspapers to save enough money to buy a VCR so he could tape Knicks games and break down coach Hubie Brown's play calls.

After his junior year in high school, Frank wrote a letter to Howard Garfinkel, who ran the prestigious Five-Star summer camps that featured some of the nation's top high school players. Garfinkel let him work in the canteen.

Frank later wrote a letter to Indiana coach Bobby Knight asking for an opportunity, and was brought aboard as a team manager. He then joined coach Kevin O'Neill as a graduate assistant at Marquette and Tennessee, moving on to the NBA where he was an assistant in Vancouver under coach Brian Hill.

Frank spent two-plus seasons as one of Scott's assistants, making the big move _ one seat over _ after the Nets reached one of their low points of the season in an 85-64 loss at Miami.

His success story has already become almost legendary in New Jersey, where a generation of prepubescent, vertically challenged boys have a new role model in the 33-year old who grew up in Teaneck.

His advice for them mirrors the path he followed.

``Any time you have a goal, you put together a plan and go about it and you have to be flexible and adjust,'' Frank said. ``It's no different than anything else in life: You see what you want, and what others may see as a dream, you may make it a possibility if you put together a plan and work at it. And you have to be very lucky.''

Frank's first loss came Wednesday night in Minnesota, snapping New Jersey's 14-game winning streak. Reporters who watched him walk to the team bus, wearing a hooded sweat shirt and carrying his four bags, described him as visibly distraught.

Frank, who made an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange upon the Nets' return to ring the opening bell, has already developed a reputation as a master motivator through his pre-game speeches.

Maybe they should call him ``Newt Rockne.''

Prior to one game, he told the Nets the story of the World War II Battle of Midway, drawing an analogy to the Japanese soldiers who grew overconfident after a series of military victories.

Next came a pre-game speech in which he asked the team why a lion tamer brings a chair with him when he enters the den. The answer: The lion sees the four legs and can't focus. The message: Concentrate on the task at hand instead of being distracted by what happened before or what'll happen next.

``I'm not saying the lion tamer or Japanese war stories aren't good stories, but when it gets down to it I would think that if he wasn't giving those pre-game talks they'd still play pretty well,'' O'Neill said. ``Pre-game talks don't determine who wins and loses, players determine who wins and loses.''

Frank had the benefit of a relatively easy stretch of schedule upon taking over, the Nets building their 14-game winning streak with a few quality victories (vs. Detroit, Indiana, New Orleans and Houston) mixed in among wins over Orlando, Miami, Toronto (twice each) and Atlanta.

But what's been clear to anyone who's watched the Nets before and after the coaching change is a difference in the level of effort being put forth by the players.

Frank's schtick wouldn't work for most coaches. With him, however, his enthusiasm is genuine and his message is something new.

``It works well for us,'' Davis said. ``That's also a sign of a great coach, he knows what buttons to push.''

Frank is at least a foot shorter and looks a bit younger than many of his players, whose respect for him was built when Frank was an assistant in charge of breaking down videotape and picking apart other teams' players.

``He's like E.F. Hutton _ when he talks, everybody listens,'' said Jason Kidd, whose poor relationship with Scott played a part in the coach's firing.

Frank has gotten the Nets to return to the level they played at for the past two seasons when they reached the NBA Finals.

``The credit should be given to our players,'' said Frank, who tried to deflect attention from his unbeaten streak while it was happening. ``The bottom line is there's a lot of coaches that are better than I, but they don't have the players we have.''

They don't have a coach like Frank, either, and some credit must go to the little guy who looks more like a ballboy than a head coach.