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Jackson chases history with Lakers
Posted: Wednesday May 03, 2000 12:35 PM
In the whole history of professional sport in America, only eight men have been able to win championships with two different teams. Just one of those -- Scotty Bowman, the current coach of the Detroit Red Wings -- has won with three separate organizations. Should he win his third title with the Wings this spring, to go with five with the Canadiens and one with the Penguins, it will become increasingly difficult not to acknowledge that Bowman may have the greatest professional coaching record ever. But hockey is the fourth sport in a three-ring American sports big top, and Bowman himself has never been known for his charm. So much more attention this spring will be focused on a basketball coach. In Los Angeles, Phil Jackson will be trying to become only the second NBA coach ever to win a title with a second franchise. That Jackson might accomplish this almost back-to-back -- in his first season back on the sideline after he left Chicago following six championships -- would make the feat even more impressive. Besides, Jackson would have done it by turning around a team, the Lakers, whose players had been known for bickering and scuffling amongst themselves, for chewing up and spitting out their coaches, and for choking in the playoffs. It's wise to refresh that memory, for it's fashionable to dismiss Jackson's work. Hey, didn't he have the greatest player ever in Chicago? Hasn't he got Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in L.A.? Jackson's famously unusual methods include team meditations, so we have this recent putdown from Terry Porter of the San Antonio Spurs: "I'd like to have seen if all that Zen stuff would've worked in Dallas or Vancouver." In fact, it's always stylish to dismiss the coaching proficiency of those who are blessed with big stars on their team. Sure, anybody could have won with Michael Jordan. Anybody could have won with Shaq and Kobe. Only, of course, nobody else did. The truth is, maybe it's even more difficult coaching the superstar's team, because the coach must possess such a fragile balance of deference and command. It ain't easy. But remember: Jordan came so to admire Jackson that he wouldn't play any longer without him on the bench. And O'Neal had been a selfish lout for both his teams and most of his coaches, until, under Jackson, he's not only become accommodating, but far and away the most dominant player in the league. Heavens to Betsy! Shaq's even begun to improve his free-throw shooting. Shaq does remain piqued that the NBA keeps searching for another Michael Jordan to market when the league should, he believes, be hyping an original Shaquille O'Neal, but, under Jackson, he has subjugated his ego to team on the court, and he seems prepared to put victory before vanity in the marketplace, too. Jackson had an interesting choice before he took the Lakers job. Bill Bradley, his old Knicks teammate, wanted him to run his primary campaign in Iowa. If you recall, Bradley would lose horribly there. That loss diminished his chances in New Hampshire, where Vice President Gore edged him out -- and there pretty much went the nomination. In the realm of "might-have-been", who knows what could have happened had Coach Jackson accepted the task in Iowa and done the sort of outstanding job for Bradley there that he has done for the Lakers? But, instead, the only history Phil Jackson can make now is to lead Los Angeles to a title, to join Scotty Bowman in the rare company of those few coaches who could make it work all over again. These commentaries, which appear each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, are posted weekly by CNNSI.com.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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