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
We couldn't stop their second chance points down the stretch. I thought we had a good shot at winning the game. It was well fought.
I think he gave the ball up in various points of the year, and I think there's been a fine balance between guys stepping up and making shots and Kobe trusting his teammates. It hasn't got to the point where it's not happening, where I'm disappointed, but there's opportunities that still could be there that have to be exploited even more and we have to recognize that as a team.
We'd rather have Steve being the guy that's taking the shots and making the points than having a bunch of guys get 20 points or 15 points a game.
It's not going to be about Kobe getting 45 points a night. It's going to be about how are we going to use all the talents to do what we have to do to take a team apart.
It's a tall order, without a doubt. But that's the key to this series is how you're going to slow down the guy that makes this offense generate points and close out on the guys that are getting wide-open shots.
It came to a point where there was that curiosity factor: Was he going to hit 80? I'm sure it went through his head.
I think they felt intimidated at some point in this playoff. ...Our big guys have been effective. ... They just wanted to make a stand and make a statement.
He played with the energy and the enthusiasm and threw his body around out there, things that we want to see players do. That helped us. I thought he ran out of gas at one point in that fourth quarter. Otherwise, I probably would have had him stay on the floor.
I don't mean to say that as a snide remark toward a certain population in our society, ... But they have a limitation of their attention span, a lot of it probably due to too much rap music going in their ears and coming out their being. So they need to get a focal point that lasts longer than a TV commercial or one short 15-second span.
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.