Zen & The Mastery Of Coaching

by Matt Brannen

The Los Angeles Lakers won the 2009 NBA title this evening, solidfying Kobe Bryant's 4th championship and his place as one of the biggest winners (if not the biggest) in basketball of his generation. The title was also Bryant's first without Shaquille O'Neal, worth note only because the accomplishment will hopefully stop all of the insipid "Shaq vs. Kobe feud" hot air from the last several years. However, the Lakers conquest of Orlando also marked the 10th championship for head coach Phil Jackson, who leapfrogged Celtics icon Red Auerbach for the most championships by one coach in NBA history. The point of this column is to focus on the fact that Jackson's 10th title is truly the big story here, regardless of how many pro-Kobe features that will air on TV, be talked about on sports talk radio, or posted on the Internet in the next few days.

Jackson's coaching career has been well chronicled over the years and doesn't need to be rehashed in this space. From his start in the now defunct Continental Basketball Association, an assistant coaching stint with Chicago, and assumption to championship status as head coach with the Bulls (and later Lakers), Jackson has been a lightning rod for controversy and scorn from his coaching brethren and the media that cover his teams. While he may seem to talk in riddles at times during press conferences or act like he is one step ahead of everyone else in the room, there are few NBA coaches that have ever gotten more out of his players than Phil Jackson and did so by emphasizing the team concept. While with the Bulls, Jackson deliberately installed assistant coach Tex Winter's triple post (AKA-"triangle offense") half court system, a motion-passing offense that forces every member on the court to read and react to the entire defense, not just the man guarding them. When you think about what most basketball fans opinions are of how the NBA game has evolved into the "me first, second, and third" credo that has seemingly taken hold in the league, that is an accomplishment worth noting in and of itself.

Jackson has been the leader of two of the most successful NBA dynasties in the last 20 years: Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls and Bryant's Lakers. Jordan was the most dominant player in the game when Jackson became his head coach in the late 1980s and he actually became better (and a champion) under Jackson's tutelage. From Chicago, Jackson's next challenge was to harnass the massive ability (and, some would argue, ego) of Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles. It did not take long for the Lakers to ascend to the top spot in the league with the trio of Bryant, O'Neal, and Jackson (and champions, without O'Neal, again in 2009). However, "Big Chief Triangle" (as former Knicks and Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy used to mockingly call Jackson when he was in the league) has also been the fulcrum of criticism and cheap shots (whether they be warranted or not) from coaches and media types for the entire period. Jackson's open discussion of his unconventional methods (like giving players non-basketball books to read on road trips and organized meditation exercises), especially early in his career, made him an easy target. Other top coaches and some in the media argued that it was superstars like Jordan, Bryant, and O'Neal that were the ones responsible for their team's respective success, not Jackson as coach. However, the sheer amount of championships that "the Zen Master" (another derisive moniker given to Jackson) has skippered shows that sophomoric names truly haven't hurt Jackson or kept him from getting back to the championship.

Beyond the record number of titles, Phil Jackson's legacy may be recorded as the fact that he helped three of the greatest players of the last 20 years in Jordan, Bryant, and O'Neal (and arguably, in Jordan, the greatest player of all-time) to the title when other coaches couldn't/hadn't. His coaching ideology and practices may seem silly to some, but those that buy in have reached heights that they never achieved before and, interestingly enough, almost (besides O'Neal's title in Miami with Riley) never achieved again without him. Whether or not he coaches another game, Jackson has to be considered one of the greatest NBA bench bosses of all time. In fact, he may have put himself in a position where he could be considered the greatest coach in all of pro sports history. A famous Chinese proverb and idea that Jackson has used repeatedly over the years with his teams is "The journey is the reward." For many of today's vagabond coaches and self-aggrandizing players, it is easy to laugh off such a thought while they search for greener (read: cash-laced) pastures or more face time on TV. However, for anyone that is a fan of teams that play hard and unselfishly, our reward has been in Phil Jackson's coaching journey.