Latest news with #PhilJackson
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2 days ago
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"Shaq was pretty hard-headed, there's no doubt about it" - Phil Jackson on why Shaq may have been the toughest superstar he ever coached
"Shaq was pretty hard-headed, there's no doubt about it" - Phil Jackson on why Shaq may have been the toughest superstar he ever coached originally appeared on Basketball Network. Kobe Bryant wasn't the only personality Phil Jackson had to handle during his first stint with the Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, contrary to popular belief, Kobe might not have even been the toughest to manage. At least in Jackson's view, that distinction may have belonged to the 7'1", 325-pound centerpiece of the Lakers' early-2000s dominance, Shaquille O'Neal. It had little to do with ego or off-court theatrics and everything to do with the constant battle of harnessing talent that was both generational and, at times, uncontainable. Handling O'Neal Jackson arrived in L.A. in 1999, and O'Neal was already a dominant force and a walking mismatch who had bullied his way to multiple All-NBA First Team selections. But what Jackson saw wasn't just raw talent. It was potential that still hadn't been fully shaped into a championship mold. And that became one of his biggest coaching challenges. "Shaq's pretty hard-headed, there's no doubt about it," Jackson said. "But it was pretty easy to be positive with him, because everything in this offensive system looks to get the ball in the middle, you are looking to find the ball in the post, that's your first priority. Get the ball inside and see the best penetration way to get the ball close to the basket. That's the goal of almost every game." Jackson's triangle offense was tailor-made to spotlight a dominant interior player, and O'Neal became the focal point with his unmatched presence in the paint. But getting O'Neal to commit — mentally and physically — was a different kind of coaching effort. There were days when Jackson had to balance patience with pressure, managing the rhythms of a player whose conditioning and focus could swing with the season. What made O'Neal unique wasn't just his size. It was the finesse that lived within his power. His footwork and basketball IQ often got overshadowed by his brute force. And for Jackson, the mission was about aligning his game with the demands of a system that required discipline over dominance. The Lakers' three-peat from 2000 to 2002 didn't happen simply because they had stars. It happened because Jackson managed to fuse superstar energy with structured philosophy. And keeping O'Neal on the line was the thread that held the plan together. Even in moments of friction — be it with teammates, media or staff — O'Neal's role in the triangle offense remained untouchable. Everything started and ended with him on the integral part During that Lakers run, the towering Lakers big man averaged 28.5 points and 12.3 rebounds in the regular season and elevated those numbers even further in the playoffs. In 2000, he led the league in scoring and was named MVP. But what made him invaluable was his gravity and the way defenses collapsed, shooters got open and the way the triangle system could breathe, because he occupied so much attention and minutes on the floor. "With Shaq, it was more about getting yourself ready to play for a duration," Jackson said, That 1999–2000 season remains the statistical high-water mark for O'Neal's endurance. Averaging 40 minutes per game over an 82-game season — and even more in the postseason — was a grind. Yet it was also a necessity. Jackson needed him out there, anchoring both ends of the court, not just for the physical impact but for the psychological edge. When O'Neal was on the floor, the Lakers were a different team — tougher and less vulnerable. But that also meant Jackson had to constantly monitor O'Neal's health, practice intensity, and in-game stamina. Unlike Michael Jordan, who thrived on nonstop competition, or Bryant, who lived in the gym, O'Neal required a tailored approach, one that preserved his body but sharpened his edge. The payoff came in the form of one of the most dominant playoff stretches the league has ever seen. In the 2000 postseason, O'Neal averaged 30.7 points and 15.4 rebounds. He had three 40-point games in the Finals alone. And yet, beneath the highlights and hardware, Jackson never forgot just how tough the process story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.
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5 days ago
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"I'd pull him to the sideline and start saying, 'Hey, don't try to do too much yet'"- Phil Jackson on when he realized he couldn't treat Kobe Bryant the same way he did Michael Jordan
"I'd pull him to the sideline and start saying, 'Hey, don't try to do too much yet'"- Phil Jackson on when he realized he couldn't treat Kobe Bryant the same way he did Michael Jordan originally appeared on Basketball Network. Phil Jackson's career as an NBA head coach gave him the rare and possibly impossible to replicate task of managing not one, but two fiercely driven superstars with eerily similar skill sets and even more explosive competitive fire. Hint: they both were glabrous above and stuck their tongue out as adrenaline roared. However, as the years unfolded and the rings stacked up, Jackson began to understand that similarity in playstyle didn't mean sameness in personality — or coaching approach. Holding him back Jackson first arrived in Los Angeles when Kobe Bryant was barely 21. The young guard was already a three-time NBA All-Star, known for his aggressive scoring instincts and almost maniacal obsession with the game. Phil wasn't walking into a developmental situation; he was walking into a fire that had already been lit. He just had to tone it down a little bit. "I had a relationship with Kobe that started 21, 20 years of age when I got to the Lakers," Jackson recalled. "And it was like he was there to learn and he was very attentive. When the game started going, I had to kind of hold him back at times, because he would go out and he'd want to get himself in a situation. "I'd pull him to the sideline and start saying, 'Hey, don't try to do too much yet." Bryant's will to dominate every second of play was aimed at control. He believed in his ability to bend games to his will and he wanted that responsibility early, every night. Jackson had to temper that instinct without muting it. A balancing act he hadn't dealt with in quite the same way during Michael Jordan's formative years. Jackson once famously called Bryant "uncoachable," but it wasn't a slight. It was an acknowledgment of a fundamental truth: The Los Angeles Lakers icon may have mirrored Jordan's game and approach to offense almost to the detail, but internally, he burned with something different — something sharper and more consuming. Jackson had sculpted the greatest dynasty of the 1990s around Jordan's brilliance. Walking into the Lakers' locker room in 1999 with the triangle offense and Jordan-tested wisdom in hand wasn't a guaranteed formula for control. And perhaps that was the key difference. The Chicago Bulls legend had matured into a surgical closer by the time Jackson took over the Bulls in 1989. Bryant, by contrast, was still trying to carve his identity out of the Jordan mold while fighting to assert himself alongside Shaquille O'Neal, one of the most dominant big men in league for the system Jackson's approach to coaching was built around the triangle offense, a system designed to maximize team cohesion and minimize ego-driven, one-on-one play. Before he arrived in Chicago, Jordan was the best individual player in the league. He had already claimed a Defensive Player of the Year, five scoring titles and an MVP — brilliant, but incomplete as the Bulls were playoff casualties. Jackson helped him understand that less can lead to more, the same thing he wanted Bryant to learn early on. "That's one of the reasons I brought Michael and said, 'Wait until the fourth quarter," Jackson said. "Wait until there is a need and the game demonstrates that there is a need for individual action, then go into your game and go into the things you can do well." It was a system built on trust. Trust the offense. Trust the team. And the moments of brilliance will still find you. Jordan embraced it, even as his scoring average dipped from 37.1 points per game in 1987 to a more sustainable 31.5 by 1992. But those years brought championships — six of them. Bryant, though, wasn't just trying to win. He was trying to define himself. When Jackson implemented the same structure with the Lakers, he initially chafed. In his eyes, holding back was self-limiting. Phil wanted him to wait for the right moment. Bryant wanted to be in the moment. Still, the system worked. From 2000 to 2002, the Lakers won three straight titles. Bryant adjusted enough to fit, learned when to dominate and when to defer. But friction remained. Even in later years, when Jackson returned to L.A. in 2005, the tension between Bryant's hyper-focused individuality and Jackson's system-first ideology never fully dissolved. It simply evolved. By the time Bryant won two more titles in 2009 and 2010, he had fully taken on the closer role Jackson once reserved for Jordan. But unlike the five-time MVP, Bryant never quite accepted being just a piece of the system. He respected it, but he never surrendered to it. That was the compromise. And it story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.
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6 days ago
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"The players themselves thought this is crazy and they just started ignoring" - Jackson says Lakers players gave up trying to make peace between Kobe and Shaq
"The players themselves thought this is crazy and they just started ignoring" - Jackson says Lakers players gave up trying to make peace between Kobe and Shaq originally appeared on Basketball Network. At the height of their dominance, the Los Angeles Lakers were a dynasty built on two cornerstones who couldn't stand each other. Between 2000 and 2002, the Lakers pulled off a three-peat, steamrolling through the NBA with one of the most feared one-two punches the league had ever seen, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. But there was a slow-burning tension that engulfed the locker room and wore down everyone in its orbit. The feud was visible and tangible. Even head coach Phil Jackson could only do so much before the storm consumed the silence. Feuding enough The Lakers' "civil war" in the early 2000s was more than two superstars clashing over ego and legacy; it was a tension that spilled into team chemistry, roles, and power dynamics. From Jackson to the front office, down to the role players who just wanted to do their job, it became a daily balancing act. The players around both superstars eventually gave up trying to play peacemakers. "At one point, I think the players themselves thought that this is crazy and they just started ignoring them," Jackson recalled. It came after seasons of passive-aggressive interviews, tense moments in practice, and cold silences on team flights. The more Bryant and O'Neal grew apart, the more the team environment strained. The Lakers had a championship machine, but the engine room was overheating, and the locker room could only watch. O'Neal was the force. A 7'1", 325-pound unstoppable presence in the paint who commanded respect and the locker room stereo. Bryant, still in his early 20s during the Lakers' first title run, was the obsessive technician who wanted not just to win, but to dominate — and to be seen as the reason why. Their personalities clashed from the start. In 1998, Bryant skipped team dinners and preferred solo workouts, while O'Neal, then the undisputed leader, called him out for being aloof and selfish. The younger Laker, in turn, criticized the big man's work ethic, suggesting he relied too much on raw talent and not enough on preparation. These weren't mere differences but ideological divides on how to lead, how to train and how to win. Jackson had coached iconic duos before — Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen being the blueprint. But Jordan and Pippen didn't battle over the steering wheel. The Lakers' front office watched the drama unfold, hoping that talent would outweigh turmoil. For a while, it did. In the 2001 playoffs, they went 15-1, one of the most dominant postseason runs in NBA history. But behind the scenes, Jackson admits that internal tension has worn down the team from the vs. Kobe As the feud went on, the team began to fracture. Younger players found themselves picking sides. Veterans who had seen quieter locker rooms before began to mentally check out. And according to Jackson, even the attempts to mediate eventually faded away. "There was some little stuff like that that went on — that kind of petty stuff," Jackson recalled. "But in reality, they always blended back together when it became a critical point of view. But there was just a 'who's the real leader' type of thing going on… So I kind of let them play that for a while." The tension wasn't always dramatic. Sometimes it was subtle. One side of the locker room would joke, mostly aligned with O'Neal. The other side would be quieter, more serious, dialed in with Bryant. The lines were clear enough that teammates, like Rick Fox and Derek Fisher, found themselves constantly navigating the middle ground. Bryant had grown into a top-three player in the league and wanted the offense to tilt toward his skill set. O'Neal, though still dominant, wasn't ready to cede the spotlight. Jackson let the Cold War play out, hoping it would resolve naturally under the weight of a shared goal. The team kept winning — but barely. In 2003, they lost in the second round to the San Antonio Spurs. Despite adding Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton, they fell short in the 2004 Finals to the Detroit Pistons. That was the final straw. Shortly after, O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. Bryant stayed, and the team retooled around him. Still, those years left a lasting legacy. The Lakers won three straight titles despite the tension, not because it was story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.
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16-07-2025
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"That was one of things when I brought Kobe in to meet Michael" - Phil Jackson on what he had Michael Jordan teach Kobe Bryant in their first sit down together
"That was one of things when I brought Kobe in to meet Michael" - Phil Jackson on what he had Michael Jordan teach Kobe Bryant in their first sit down together originally appeared on Basketball Network. It takes a rare kind of coach to handle a once-in-a-generation player. Advertisement It takes a rare kind of coach to handle two once-in-a-generation players. Phil Jackson had two. And not just any two — Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, two men who not only defined eras but warped them around their often-mentioned pursuit of basketball brilliance. Jackson managed their talent and studied their psychology, drive and differences. And when he had the opportunity to bring them together, he did something that only he could have envisioned by having Jordan teach Bryant how to think like a champion. The Jordan textbook The legendary head coach had the privilege of coaching both men at different points in their careers — Jordan during his prime with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s and Bryant as he entered his peak with the early-2000s Los Angeles Lakers. Advertisement Both players were fierce competitors. Both were singular talents. But as Jackson would later reflect, the similarities in their fire sometimes masked deep contrasts in how they approached the game, especially when it came to leadership and timing. "Michael could sit back and watch other people perform and encourage them, feed them the ball, get them involved," Jackson said. "And then step into the gap when it was needed at some other time in the ball game… That was one of the things when I brought Kobe in to meet Michael." Jackson didn't have to teach much. Kobe was already a carbon copy of his boyhood hero in many aspects. He entered the league with the Lakers as a precocious 18-year-old with a firestorm of ambition. He modeled much of his game after the man who wore 23 in Chicago for 13 years, down to the turnaround fadeaways and fierce competitiveness. Advertisement But while Jordan had evolved into a more patient tactician by the time of his second three-peat with the Bulls, Bryant was still pushing hard at every possession and every moment. Jackson wanted the younger player to see the nuances. Jackson was nudging Bryant toward being a dominant force on the floor, just like Jordan. During the Bulls' 1995–96 season, when they won a record-setting 72 games, Jordan averaged 30.4 points per game and also posted one of his most balanced campaigns, with 6.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game — metrics that reflected his mature understanding of tempo and control. Related: "She carries all that on and off the court" - NBA 2K GM explains why Angel Reese, not Caitlin Clark, is on the iconic game's 2026 cover Becoming a killer Bryant, in his first few years, would often put up bursts of 30+ point games with far fewer assists, mirroring a more soloist approach. Jackson saw this and used Jordan as a model of pacing and execution. Advertisement "They knew each other before," Jackson said of Bryant and Jordan. "But I set up a little post-game situation when Michael wasn't playing and Kobe came in and I wanted him to hear Michael talk about finishing a game." Jordan had just come off a stretch of dominance that saw him claim his sixth NBA championship in 1998, with perhaps the most iconic game-winner in Finals history. A mid-range pull-up over Bryon Russell in Utah. His reputation for taking over in the last five minutes was cemented long before, with countless playoff heroics and countless high-scoring fourth quarters in close games during the '97 playoffs alone. Bryant, who would go on to own his own library of clutch moments, including four game-winners in the 2009-10 season alone, soaked in the wisdom. But at that point in his career, he was still learning when to attack and when to step back. The 1999–2000 Lakers, the first team Jackson coached in Los Angeles, often saw Bryant attempt to assert himself too early in games. Advertisement Jackson understood that true leadership comes from managing rhythm. Jordan had mastered that. Bryant did the same as well and it all began with moments like the one Jackson arranged — where ego stepped aside and learning stepped in. Related: "I could never consider myself a god" - Michael Jordan felt embarrassed about being adored like God This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
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Phil Jackson on why he didn't return to coach the 2012 Lakers superteam: "I never had the feeling that this is the right thing to do'
Phil Jackson on why he didn't return to coach the 2012 Lakers superteam: "I never had the feeling that this is the right thing to do' originally appeared on Basketball Network. Phil Jackson had multiple stints as the Los Angeles Lakers head coach. Advertisement And after he stepped down in 2011, the franchise was never quite the same. His departure closed the book on an era that had delivered five championships and a deeply woven identity built around the triangle offense, elite leadership and winning at any cost. But as the Lakers spiraled through turbulent coaching transitions and underwhelming seasons, many believed there might be one more chapter left. One more return. One more Phil-Jackson-save-the-day moment. Except it never came. Not going back Even as the front office frantically tried to retool the roster, pairing an aging but still hungry Kobe Bryant with Steve Nash and Dwight Howard in 2012, Jackson stayed away. There would be no third homecoming for the legendary head coach. Advertisement "I felt it would be pretty easy for Nash and Howard to learn the system; it's an easy system to learn," Jackson said. "But I never had a feeling it's the right thing to do or must be done." When the Lakers reached out to Jackson in late 2012, they were a franchise clutching at fading relevance. Head coach Mike Brown had been fired after just five games. Bryant was still pushing his body and spirit toward one last deep playoff run. So L.A. turned to big moves, bringing in Nash, a two-time MVP, in a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Suns and acquiring Howard, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, from the Orlando Magic. On paper, it felt like a super team. But on the court, it was a chemistry experiment that never stabilized. Nash, then 38, struggled with injuries almost immediately. Howard, still recovering from back surgery, clashed with Bryant's demanding personality and never looked at ease. The triangle offense, which had always worked best with patient, cerebral players and unselfish ball movement, was an afterthought. Instead of building continuity, the Lakers burned through instability. Advertisement They finished the 2012–13 season with a 45–37 record, barely making the playoffs, only to be swept by the Spurs in the first round. That season also marked the end of Bryant's ironman phase, with an Achilles injury that would alter the final chapters of his career. Related: "The air conditioner they turn on in the winter and the heat on in the summer" - Joe Dumars on why playing Larry Bird's Celtics in the Garden was a nightmare Jackson's challenge Looking back, Jackson understood the potential of that roster. He wasn't discrediting the talent. But even with Nash's vision, Howard's rim protection and Kobe being Kobe, the risks weighed heavier than the reward. Advertisement "I said, 'Maybe we can get out of the Western Conference, we're a good enough team, there's talent enough,'" Jackson said. "But, boy, I'd sure hate to lose in the Finals again, and that's something I've started to think about." For a coach who had tasted both dynastic triumph and bitter Finals defeat, the thought of coming back only to fall short again didn't sit well. He had already battled through the peaks and valleys of coaching legends — Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen for the Chicago Bulls, then Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, then Bryant again and Pau Gasol in Los Angeles. He had coached over 1,600 games, won 11 championships and shaped three separate three-peats. There was nothing left to prove. Returning to a high-pressure locker room with conflicting personalities and fragile dynamics wasn't appealing, especially after watching the Lakers fumble their identity post-2010. They were no longer the calculated juggernaut of old. They were chasing relevance through star power and marketing splash. Advertisement The Lakers were a shadow of themselves in the early 2010s. Between 2011 and 2017, the franchise missed the playoffs four times and never advanced past the second round. The superteam experiment failed. Nash retired in 2015 after appearing in just 65 games across two seasons. Dwight bolted after one year, and Kobe's retirement in 2016 marked the end of a generation. Jackson, meanwhile, transitioned to an executive role in New York, where his time as Knicks president was far less flattering. But even in that stretch, his name never left L.A. conversations. His imprint was simply that lasting. Related: Hakeem Olajuwon on what separates Michael Jordan from LeBron James: "Jordan was a far more superior player in a very, very tough league" This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
