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
There's still a fan core out there that's not going to let him off the hook. They're not going to give him the grace and the ability to get himself off the hook and into the fans' favor.
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.
That's not unusual for a player to lose concentration if certain phases of the game go wrong for him. He put some pressure on himself to score. All players want to score as a part of their game. . . . I don't know where his confidence is. You either have it or you don't have it. It doesn't reside in your jockstrap or your brain. His confidence should be in his defense. That's where he plays and rebounds and hustles for us.
I think that Shaq measures himself against a season. I've always given him credit for that. He knows what the end goal is, and he's got a tremendous amount of pride. He'll be there when the playoffs are going, and he's going to be probably at his peak at that time.
He is coming up with some key plays for us. And at the offensive end, he is doing things that help him finish at the basket. When a player plays extended minutes, you fall into that rhythm. Kwame has set himself up to have this sort of success.
I'm not going to weigh in on that one. I think that water is a little deep. I think that he measures himself against a season. I've always given him credit for that and he knows what the end-goal is. He's got a tremendous amount of pride and I anticipate that's a process that he's going through. He'll be there when playoffs are going and he'll probably be at his peak at that time.
We talked about how passive they were in the first quarter.
When it doesn't produce wins, that's the fine line. And then players . . . also have to feel like they're a part of it. If they are, then they play at a better level.
We figured no one would break it for another 30 years, just like it took for the Lakers' record to be broken. So, it is surprising Detroit is pushing for it.
I've talked to other players that were there, but that was played in like complete silence. I guess there was a radio announcer there, but there was nothing else that you could even document it. People don't even know if they had a backboard or nets.
I've seen some remarkable games, but never anything like that.
I've seen some remarkable games but I've never seen anything like that before. It's just a personal challenge for him to attack the whole team. It was not exactly the way you want to win a game, but when you have to win a game, it's great to have that weapon to be able to do it. We rode the hot the hand.
I've seen quite a few guys do that in his situation, focused. He wanted to stay in, in the second quarter. He asked to stay in so he could get loose, get a second wind.
I've seen a few 60-point ballgames in my time, but none of them had been done by the third quarter.