Have you been watching Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson these playoffs? It’s pretty hard to catch a glimpse of him actually coaching. It seems like Kobe Bryant has mutinied the LA team, becoming the one in the middle of huddles, the one yelling at refs, the one telling his teammates where to be, and what to do. So what has Phil Jackson been doing? Apparently I’m the only one seeing him take a back-seat role to the self-proclaimed coach and basketball genius, Kobe Bryant; in yesterday’s SportsNation poll on ESPN, Phil Jackson won “greatest NBA coach of all time”, defeating Red Auerbach and Pat Reilly like brushing dirt off his shoulder. Since he started coaching in 1989, he’s made the playoffs every single year, and he’s won ten championships, in only 18 years. Without question, if you look solely at the numbers, Jackson has to be the greatest NBA coach of all time. But is he really?
Jackson got the head coaching job of the Chicago Bulls in 1989. That was Michael Jordan’s fifth year in the NBA: the prime of his life. It was also Scotty Pippen’s second year in the NBA, just long enough for him to get the hang of hanging with the stars of the NBA. One of the greatest dynamic duos of all time fell into Jackson’s lap, and he was able to lead (sit on the bench and watch MJ dominate) the Bulls to a three-peat from 1991-1993. Michael Jordan retired after the third finals victory, surprising Jackson and the rest of the NBA. Not surprisingly, however, Jackson was unable to continue winning without the team’s MVP: during Jordan’s short-lived baseball career, the Bulls had their worst two seasons ever while under Phil Jackson. Fortunately for the Bulls’ frustrated coach, Jordan came back and started the 1995 season, along with new acquisition, Dennis Rodman, winner of the past four rebounding titles. These three stars led the Bulls to another three consecutive NBA Finals victories from 1996-1998, with Jackson serving as the designated time-out-caller, as Jordan his three all-stars walked over competition, giants among men. Then, when Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman didn’t return to the Bulls during the ’98 offseason, neither did Phil Jackson. Possibly realizing his inability to coach a team that lacks the ridiculous talent he enjoyed throughout his tenure in Chicago, Jackson did not show any desire to continue coaching the franchise, and took a year off from basketball. Since the departure of Jackson, but more impmortantly the departure of that trio, Chicago Bulls are championship-less since 1998.
Meanwhile, in LA, the makings of a dynasty were in motion. In 1996, the Lakers acquired three talented young players, 4-year veteran Shaquille O’Neal along with rookies Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher. Phil Jackson wound up the coach of this absurdly talented Laker team in 1999, as both Kobe and Shaq were entering their prime. Can you guess what happened next? With another of the best dynamic duos of all time, the Lakers went back-to-back-to-back, winning three straight NBA titles from 2000-2002. Phil Jackson happened to be the coach at the time. Starting the following season, Shaq and Kobe showed signs of disunion, and the team struggled, and Jackson could not bring his team together. That year, the Lakers did not advance in the postseason further than the Conference Semifinals. Then, there was another year of Shaq-Kobe feuding, another year of Phil Jackson feeding off the talent of his superstars, another year without a championship. Faced with intra-team problems that Jackson could do nothing about, he did not return as the Lakers head coach in 2004. When he returned after a one-year “sabbatical”, for the first time in his career, Phil Jackson had to do some work of his own, as he was faced with the task of developing some young talent. He was so used to it being handed to him. I guess you could say he did a fine job, since he took his team to the NBA Finals this year and last year.
Jackson is unquestionably a good coach. Even when given all the talent in the world, it does take some ability to keep a team together (let’s forget about LA from 2003-2004 for a minute), and it does take some basketball knowledge to formulate a decent strategy, and it does take some suaveness to be NBA champions 10 times during an 18 year career. I’m just saying, you put Terry Francona in Phil Jackson’s shoes, and I bet he’d win a few titles. I don’t know how he’d respond to having to wear a suit though.
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