Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jacksonis an American professional basketball executive, former coach and former player, currently serving as president of the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association. Jackson was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 until 1998, during which Chicago won six NBA championships. His next team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won five championships from 2000 until 2010. In total, Jackson has won 11 NBA titles as a coach, surpassing the previous record of nine set...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth17 September 1945
CityDeer Lodge, MT
CountryUnited States of America
My father was the superintendent of the churches in the state of Montana. He was content in his beliefs. He befit the term 'true Christian.' He would turn the other cheek. He was truly a man of peace.
You have to be able to psychologically help your players, support-wise, be in touch with them, so I think managing people is very important.
I replaced three joints in my hips and one in my knee. I'm hoping that other knee doesn't have to be done. It's one of the toughest things to overcome.
There's a lot of chatter in basketball and, rightfully, you want players to be talking to each other... But sometimes in practice, it gets too verbose... so I tried to take things out of the ordinary and make them special so they'd understand the difference.
As much as we pump iron and we run to build our strength up, we need to build our mental strength up... so we can focus... so we can be in concert with one another.
The winter's a little bit daunting in Montana.
My philosophy is that you don't motivate players with speeches; you have motivated players that you draft. That's where they come in, and those are the guys that are competitive. You can not teach competitiveness.
My father was a man who didn't consider himself learned. He was a man who liked to be a farmer. He enjoyed his dairy farm and felt the calling. So there was a dedication. I was dedicated as a child to the service of God, and so there was this continual centering of a greater purpose than your own.
The NBA has made a real issue about really making these superstars the premium that everybody wants to go to. That's their calling card and their marketing tool. But the coaches at the other end of the sphere are trying to make everybody on the team, even nine, 10, 11, 12, just as important, and have a real role that's meaningful.
We played about as well as we played all season. They had back-to-back games like we did, but you could see their legs getting tired. I had a suspicion that we could win this game tonight, but they played above my expectations.
We definitely want to make the playoffs -- that's a goal for us. We won't know how far we can go in the playoffs for a long time. To make the playoffs is a goal we think we can accomplish. This is going to be a process. You're not going to see a finished product for a while.
They still have the defense as their calling card, but they have released and liberated the offense.
They knew how intensely they had to play. They knew that there had to be a win. We just said that we're going to win this game regardless. I'm going to play the players that have to play to win the game. They buckled down and did the job they had to do.
They made that little run and the end, and we had to make some big plays. The biggest plays were defensive -- although Kwame got an offensive rebound that really changed the complexion of the game and forced them to foul.