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Coach of the moment Don't overlook the job Phil Jackson continues to doPosted: Wednesday May 15, 2002 12:26 PM
Coaches always get the most credit for improving a team's record. Fair enough. For example, in the NBA, Rick Carlisle of Detroit was chosen as Coach of the Year because he lifted the Pistons so dramatically. And a fine job, indeed, did Mr. Carlisle do. Meanwhile, Phil Jackson of the Lakers got more attention for courting his boss' daughter than for coaching his team -- as, inexorably, Los Angeles moves toward its third straight title. Should the Lakers win, Jackson will earn his ninth NBA championship, which will tie him with Red Auerbach of the Celtics, who retired in 1966. Also like Auerbach, Jackson has only once won the Coach of the Year award, for both have been similar in that critics sneered -- well, if you had Bill Russell, as Auerbach did, and Michael Jordan, as Jackson did, and Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, as he does now, then any numbskull could coach their teams to victory. For my money, though, it is a great deal more difficult to keep a team with a great star happy and winning. It is all very nice to say that Jackson has Michael and Shaq and Kobe to thank for his rings, but the fact of the matter is that all those great heroes played for other coaches and none of those head men could lead them to a championship. Dealing with a big-time player in basketball is the most difficult, because basketball involves so few people, and a star matters, proportionally, far more than he does in other games. In many sports, a coach can succeed strictly as a strategist, as a general. In basketball, his personality is just as important. Basketball is too intimate for a coach to fake it. If he puts it on, he is dead meat. The basketball coach's challenge in dealing with his big star is only heightened. Lose the one player's trust and everything crumbles. It is as simple as that. Phil Jackson is sometimes mocked -- by players and outsiders alike -- for his distinctive and bizarre procedures of the Zen school. But somehow his methods strengthen his command, even if not all his players buy into them. Ultimately, Jackson succeeds because, no matter what, he comes across as genuine. His most perilous moment happened several years ago, when Jordan was off playing baseball, and Scottie Pippen fell heir as the team's leader. In a key playoff game, with only two seconds left, Jackson decided to use Pippen as a decoy and have another player take the final shot. Pippen, furious, refused to even go back in the game. It was the ultimate challenge to a coach, and, no less, a threat to the very ethic of sport. How did Jackson handle the matter? In the locker room, he addressed the team, not Pippen. He said, "What was broken was sacred. What happened has hurt us. Now you -- you have to work this out." And then Jackson left the players alone. They dealt with the star. The team survived. That is coaching. That is coaching pro basketball in the here and now. Jackson has often had a dicey relationship with O'Neal and Bryant -- epspecially Shaq. Jackson does not coddle his stars. But neither does he lose their ear. The Lakers remain champions because Jackson is not coach of the year, but coach of this time. Somehow he understands what it is to be in charge, to treat the stars and the other players differently, but the team all the same. Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His new novel, The Other Adonis (Sourcebooks Landmark), is available now at bookstores everywhere. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. |
