With increased traffic to the site thanks to readers like you, and only so much beef to go around, I present to you a new segment/article I like to call Where Is The Love Wednesday. This concept will basically be the opposite of having beef, as every Wednesday, I'll be talking about something I love currently taking place in the sports world. Enjoy.
Today my love travels to Los Angeles, California to the one known as The Zen Master.
Phil Jackson, who has coached the Lakers since 1999, with the exception of the 2004-05 season, and the Bulls before that during their 90s dynasty, has won a grand total of 10 championships (6 with the Bulls, 4 with the Lakers), the most ever by a coach in the NBA.
He's certainly had a lot of help from a strong contingent of players; Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman with the Bulls, and Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant with the Lakers. Having the best players in the league have led many to speculate, including admittedly myself at one point, if Jackson is actually a great coach, or if this Zen Buddhist just has great karma and gets put in the right place at the right time. But what many don't realize is how much Jackson impacts a team.
I'm a firm believer that no coach can win without good players. No matter how much potential you can tap as a coach, there still has to be a great amount of talent on a team for them to win at all. I mean it's the players, not the coach, that are actually playing.
Has Jackson always had good players? Yes. Has he been constantly blessed with some of the greatest players in the history of basketball? Yes. But what really shows Jackson's coaching abilities is what he gets out of every single player on his bench. On each and every one of his teams, it wasn't just the superstars running the show, role players always have played a big role, especially come playoff time, the period a coach's role also becomes that more important.
With the Bulls, Jackson had guys like John Paxson, Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, Luc Longley and my all-time favorite Toni Kukoc (pronounced koo-coach). Each and every single player had a big role that was harnessed beautifully by Jackson to bring Chicago six championships over the 90s. Guys like Armstrong and Kerr were the sharp shooters, Grant and Harper were the great defensive players, Paxson was the veteran clutch guy and three point shooter, Longley was the beast and Kukoc was the great sixth man who could do whatever he was asked to do.
With the Lakers Jackson had Derek Fisher with his great three point shot and later his veteran leadership, Robert Horry as the sixth man who could make a clutch three and help lead the team, Deavan George's athleticism and defense, Horace Grant, and A.C. Green who knew how to win championships, playing with the 90s Bulls and 80s Lakers respectively, Mark Madsen to give Shaq a rest and dance at championship parades (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTRuCPddhbU), and of course Rick Fox for his good looks.
Most, if not all of these players played better under Jackson than they did under any other coach they played for. That's not just luck. Jackson has always done a great job at not only getting the most out of his superstars and turning them into team players, but he also knows how to get the most out of role players by allowing them to find their niche on the team, like the present day Lakers with the success of Lamar Odom as a great rebounder and clutch player. No matter how good or bad a player is, they will have an important role under Jackson, which makes every single player buy into a team atmosphere, which leads to championships.
But that's not why I'm loving Phil Jackson today. I'm loving Phil Jackson for one of the main things he does as a coach in the playoffs, something that he's done in every series this year. Using his Zen Buddhist, philosophical, Jedi-like mind tricks, Phil Jackson gets in people's heads.
In the first series against the young and dangerous Oklahoma Thunder, Jackson said about the team's star, 21 year old NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant, "As far as the calls that he gets on the floor, I think a lot of the referees are treating him like a superstar; he gets to the line easy and often," to which Durant replied he felt, "disrespected." Jackson was fined $35,000 for criticizing the referees, and Durant ended up having a great playoff series, averaging 25 PPG, despite losing to the Lakers in six games.
In the Western Conference Finals against the Suns, Jackson called out Steve Nash. Jackson said, it was tough to prepare for Nash "because you can't carry the ball like he does in practice. You can't pick that ball up and run with it." Nash responded when hearing the news by saying, "The best coach in the league, Gregg Popovich, didn't have a problem with it," referring to the coach of the Spurs, the team the Suns beaten in the previous round. Nash had a solid series, but was banged up throughout, suffering a broken nose in Game 4 and still suffering from a swollen right eye that almost closed shut during a series against the Spurs, as the Suns lost to the Lakers in six games.
Now, going into the Finals against the Celtics, Jackson is once again making his subtle observations that has caused major reactions. “We [the Lakers] don’t have a smackdown mentality,” Jackson told reporters. “You might have seen that with [Kevin] Garnett on [Orlando's Dwight] Howard in Game 6 in Boston, where he was smacking Howard’s arm and was finally called for an offensive foul.
“That’s not our kind of team. We don’t go out there to smack people around. I call it more resiliency. We’re a more resilient ball club. We try to stay strong and play hard. But we’re going to have to withstand some of that.”
Sure, maybe the comments that Phil has made throughout the playoffs hasn't had a noticeable effect on its actual targets statistically, but it's certainly had some effect on both the players, the referees and everyone watching the game. Guys like Durant, Nash and the Celtics would have played and will play, in the Celtics case, as well as they would have had Jackson not commented, but you know that everyone in the back of their mind, in this series, just like in the others, will look out for what Jackson said. Everyone, including Durant and especially the referees, who I believe were the main targets of all of Jackson's comments, were wondering whether Durant got too many calls, especially with his lanky frame. Everyone was looking out for Steve Nash to take an extra step without dribbling the ball. And now, everyone will be looking out for how physical the Celtics really are.
The great thing is, Jackson could say all of these things, and all he'll get are a couple of fines, which I'm sure is worth it for a guy who raked in a cool $12 million this year. Just the fact that Phil Jackson's comments could have an impact on the referees, or could have an impact on players, and I think certainly does have an impact on the way fans watch the game, is worth a slap on the wrist and a $35,000 fine from David Stern.
Jackson's comments also don't make people play better. Jackson knows better than anyone that it's hard to win in the playoffs when you're playing for revenge, especially over something someone said. Guys playing for revenge start playing frustratedly, focusing more on showing up the person who insulted them instead of actually winning the game, as Durant possible did. It's even harder for someone to totally push a comment about them to the side and try not worry about it, as Nash tried to do.
By calling out people before they call out them, Jackson is making sure he's getting in other people's heads, before they can get in his. If someone responds to his comments, he can just laugh it off knowing that even if it's just a little tiny bit, he's in their heads. It's a win-win-win for Jackson, as his team plays better as a result of his criticisms building unity against a single opponent, the other team has the possibility of playing worse if they are constantly looking for their supposed flaw, and the referees and fans pay more attention to the flaw that Phil pointed out.
Can I positively say that I know what the Zen Master is doing, and exactly what his goals are in criticizing his opponents? No, but Phil knows what he's doing, and based on his track record, whatever he does is bound to only help his team.
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