Phil Jackson – is he gone?
June 19, 2009 by James Edwards
Filed under Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Playoffs
NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.
Phil Jackson is the best coach in the game today.
You want proof. 10 NBA Titles.
Big deal, you say? How about 10 out of the last 19? Now that is incredible.
Stuart Scott interviews Phil Jackson
With this last title, Phil Jackson has become the NBA coach with the most NBA titles passing Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics and Phil did it in the age of the free agent.
Those are staggering statistics, especially in this era of free agency, expansion and the salary cap.
Still, there will always be some – like the late Auerbach – who say that Jackson has only won with ready-made championship teams.
Jackson’s current superstar, Kobe Bryant, laughed at that notion Saturday.
“I can’t name one coach that won a championship with a bunch of scrubs, so that argument makes no sense,” Bryant said.
Phil Jackson has left the game before and couldn’t stand being away. He had to return, there was just something about it.
“The addiction to coaching is a powerful one, which is why so many come back over and over and over. I don’t suspect I’ve got a serious case, but I am probably as susceptible to this drug as anyone else. I would never rule anything out.
“Since the early 1960s, I’ve played or coached in more than 2,000 games, and I can say safely there is nothing I’ve experienced outside of basketball that can match its intensity, its highs and lows, its feeling of fulfillment or failure. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without it.”
As much as Phil would love to retire to Montana, the Lakers stand to return pretty much the same team and the West grows weaker with every day that Tim Duncan ages, almost assuring a return to the Finals. How can he resist?
Photo source Newscom
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