Coaching great players shouldn't overshadow Phil's greatness
By Gregg Doyel | CBSSports.com National Columnist Follow GreggFreeman: Phil's gift ... Great players
You could wonder about Phil Jackson's greatness if he had a ring or two. A guy wins an NBA title once or twice, maybe the guy's lucky. Dick Motta won a single title. Rudy Tomjanovich won two. Nobody calls them great coaches. Nobody smart.
But Phil Jackson didn't win one title. He didn't win two. Or three. Or ... look, do I really have to count them up? Past four, five and six, with somebody picking up sticks? Past seven and eight, which rhymes with great? All the way to nine?
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| All-Star rosters or not, you don't win nine titles without knowing what you are doing. (Getty Images) |
And counting.
That's how many NBA titles Phil Jackson has won. Nine. And not just nine, but nine. A number like that in a story like this requires -- no, demands -- emphasis. So emphasize mine. And nine.
And empathize with Mike Freeman. Forgive him, for he knows not what he says.
Freeman's contention is that any idiot could have won NBA titles with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, as Phil Jackson did, and Freeman would have a point if it weren't for Doug Collins. He's the idiot who coached the Bulls for the first two seasons of the Jordan-Pippen era and couldn't win an NBA title. Or even reach the NBA Finals.
Freeman's other contention is that any idiot could have won NBA titles with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, as Phil Jackson did, and Freeman would have another point if it weren't for Del Harris and Kurt Rambis. They are the idiots who coached the Lakers for the first three seasons of the O'Neal-Bryant era and couldn't win an NBA title. Or even reach the NBA Finals.
So at this point Freeman is out of contention.
But I'll keep going. I'm going to pile on, pour it on, much like Phil Jackson has done when he has been in my shoes. Because when Jackson has been in my shoes -- when he has a slam-dunk winner -- he wins. He wins ruthlessly and thoroughly, to the point where nobody should have the temerity to question his dominance.
And yet people still do. They question Jackson, just like a bunch of you will question me at the end of this story. Go ahead and skip there now. Leave a message. You don't want facts. You can't handle the truth. Skip the rest of this story and tell me I'm an idiot.
Still here? Good for you. Now listen up, and learn something.
Learn that, for the most part, I understand why you'd question Jackson's place in coaching history. Seriously, I do -- or I did. I did as recently as three weeks ago, when CBSSports.com sent me to cover the Lakers in the playoffs against Utah and San Antonio. I went with the same preconceived notions so many people, including brilliant basketball people like Mike Freeman and Red Auerbach, have had about Jackson:
He's lucky.
Lucky to coach Jordan and Pippen. Lucky to coach Shaq and Kobe. Lucky to coach Kobe and Pau Gasol.
I went out there with skepticism for Jackson and his Zen and his soul patch and his coaching acumen, and I watched these Lakers with my own eyes. Saw exactly what Jackson has to work with. And it's not as much as I had been led to believe.
Bryant is brilliant, yes. LeBron James is the better all-around player, or he will be when he finally reaches his prime, but Bryant is the NBA's best scorer since Michael Jordan. Bryant is the real deal, but Gasol is not. He's a nice player, but not a star. Same goes for Lamar Odom. I've written these things before, so no need to belabor the point other than to note how it impacts Jackson. He has one star on his team. Only one. And he is in the NBA Finals.
Before, Jackson has had two stars. He had Jordan and Pippen. And he had Shaq and Kobe. I hear you -- that's a lot of stars. But Jackson didn't win once or twice with those guys. He won nine. I mean, nine.
And he basically won those nine titles in 12 years. In Chicago he won six titles in the seven full seasons he had with Jordan (and Pippen). In Los Angeles he won three titles in the five years he had with Kobe and Shaq.
Nine titles in 12 years? That's not lucky. That's damn good.
It compares to the 10 NCAA titles in 12 years won by John Wooden at UCLA. Wooden is considered the college game's greatest coach, and unlike the Bulls and Lakers, UCLA general manager booster Sam Gilbert didn't have to worry about the salary cap.
Wooden had talent, yes, but he's hailed as a genius because he won with that talent. The same should be said of Jackson. He had talent -- and he won with it. Not everybody does.
NBA flavor of the month Mike D'Antoni had Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire -- Hall of Fame talents -- and never got Phoenix to the NBA Finals, much less a championship.
Utah's Jerry Sloan had John Stockton and Karl Malone -- absolute Hall of Famers -- and never won a title. Nor has he taken Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer to the Finals.
The great Pat Riley didn't win in New York with Patrick Ewing, John Starks and Mark Jackson. The mediocre Brian Hill didn't win in Orlando with Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway. And Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson. And Horace Grant.
Rick Adelman didn't win in Portland with Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Kevin Duckworth, Clifford Robinson and Jerome Kersey. Jeff Van Gundy didn't win in New York with Ewing and Starks.
Neither Adelman nor Van Gundy won in Houston with Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.
See my point here? Great players don't win championships. Great coaches do.
And if that coach wins nine of them? Admit his greatness. Or your own foolishness.
