The Lakers deprived us of a real thrill when they shut down the idea of Phil Jackson splitting coaching duties with Kurt Rambis next season. The suggestion seemed ludicrous the minute Jackson floated it, and he took a lot of predictable flak in the media. But any sensible person following the Lakers for the last five years had to wonder: "If anybody could make this work ..."
The team has already tolerated the intolerable and won a title. Jackson left the team, ripped Kobe Bryant in a book, came back and made it work. Bryant insisted he wanted out of L.A. a few summers ago, and the worst effect seemed to be a brief disruption of owner Jerry Buss's European vacation.
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| Road games would've belonged to Kurt Rambis, without Phil Jackson looking over his shoulder. (Getty Images) |
On the other hand, when the franchise pulled in Gary Payton and Karl Malone to join Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal for the 2003-04 season and an all-but-certain title, the workmanlike Detroit Pistons turned the sure thing belly up.
So why wouldn't we suspect that Jackson could pull off the unorthodox arrangement, successfully handing off some road trips to Rambis to spare his soon-to-be 64-year-old body? Yes, the idea seemed more a product of hubris, mixed with a touch of desperation, than pragmatism. Jackson wanted to stay in the game but didn't want to give the old 110 percent.
But there was also some unprecedented humility hiding in the fine print. Imagine any other coach in basketball saying: "Yes, my team can thrive without me pulling the strings every single night."
A few control freaks, especially in the college game, would have been secretly horrified if Jackson had gotten away with it. The experiment could have undermined the idea of winning coaches as thoroughly indispensable and perhaps divinely empowered.
But the idea could also have bolstered Jackson's legacy beyond his 10 NBA titles. If he mentored Rambis well enough to make the job-sharing successful, Jackson would have proved himself to be the ultimate teacher in the game, or perhaps in any game. Better yet, he would have taken his theories of team play to a new level.
It's one thing to advocate for a triangle offense and ask a Bryant or Michael Jordan to honor a selfless system. It's another to give up the rock yourself every now and then, letting a junior associate take the shot.
• Jackson returning for another season
Successfully cooperating with Rambis might not have been a chore. He lacks the egomania of many coaches, and he has worked with Jackson either in the front office or on the bench for years. If Jackson has been properly grooming Rambis as a replacement, then the challenge of the job share wouldn't have been how the Lakers coped in Jackson's absence. It would have been how Jackson coped with the team's absence from him.
Sitting in front of a TV screen, watching his team make mistakes, itching to correct things, would Jackson have been able to give Rambis full authority? How many calls would have been placed at halftime, or to the cell phone of the nearest messenger?
In newspapers all over the country, beat writers will occasionally get a game night off and instead of spending it with friends, doing something different, some of them can't help themselves. They have to watch the game. They have to call in thoughts to their replacements.
These are people making a fraction of Jackson's salary. They have scheduled time off. None of them is expected or trained to make 82 games a year. Yet they can't let go. How could Jackson? It seems inconceivable that even he, the noted Zen practitioner, could surrender control and let Rambis find his own way.
And that's why it would be so much fun to watch. If unconventional thinkers didn't like it, they'd just have to accept that wildly talented coaches, like comparable athletes, get to play and win by different rules. They already understand it with Manny Ramirez. Why not savor a little more of Phil being Phil?
Gwen Knapp is a sports columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle.
