<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Phil Jackson had that bemused look again, his eyes a little mischievous as he shaded them from a warm afternoon sun. We've seen the look many times, the one too often mistaken for arrogance when it is more a mixture of curiosity and certainty. "Sometimes when we sit and watch tape, Tex [Winter] will look at me and say, 'I think the game has passed me by, and I never thought I'd say that,'" Jackson said, a smile curling out from under his mustache and the latest swatch of facial hair beneath it. "Then he'll look at me and say, 'I think the game has passed you by, too, Phil.'" Phil Jackson wondered about that himself the last few months. Not basketball so much as the game of life. "I still believe you need a system, you need the ability to penetrate, you've got to have an interior game. That hasn't changed," Jackson said. "Big men and post play still win the day and championships." After more than 40 years of playing and coaching basketball, Jackson is quite confident he knows how it works best. He's headed for the Basketball Hall of Fame in the next few years as one of the most accomplished coaches ever. He has the best-ever winning percentage in the playoffs and the regular season and is closing in on 1,000 career wins as he begins his seventh season of coaching the Lakers and his 16th overall as an NBA coach. What's maybe most sweet to him, his win total should surpass Red Auerbach's before he finishes his contract with the Lakers after next season. And he might go longer than that. Knicks next? No There always has been speculation and a couple of teasers that Jackson would complete the ultimate pro coaching trifecta and finish his pro career where he started it as a player in 1967, with the New York Knicks. No chance, Jackson said, though he indicated he might extend his Lakers tenure beyond next season. "There's been some talk that way," Jackson said. "I haven't heard anything officially, but feelers are out there. Things could change so dramatically for me this season that I'll feel so good I'll want to do that. "The other side of the coin is I may feel so good I'll want to use this opportunity to do the things I've put off, go live half a year in Montana, go 'round the world, hike the Himalayas." Phil Jackson had his own mountain to climb this summer, one almost too steep with doubt and dread. Growing up in rural Montana in a family of Pentecostal ministers, Jackson never fully accepted modern medicine. His Eastern religion preferences and Native American interests offered various alternatives until his heart condition required a surgical procedure. And now, as with many athletes, his body was failing. Jackson had known he needed hip replacement surgery for years but always sought alternatives. "Am I hardheaded, more determined than the average person? I probably am," he acknowledged. But there was another, more humanizing factor: fear. Jackson thought of an old media acquaintance, Dick Schaap, who died after complications from similar surgery. Jackson's mother had done fine after her surgery, but a friend with similar heart issues had died during surgery. Hey, what's a little limp? And a little pain? Except it wasn't little anymore. "There was a time this summer I was thinking, 'I don't know if I can coach anymore,'" Jackson said. "The discomfort I was in, the inability to move the way I wanted … It got to the point where I said I've got to make some changes if I'm going to make this lifestyle work for me." And it seems to be working just fine. </div> Link Wow! This is terrific news! I thought that with the hip surgery this off-season, and his age, that his coaching career may be starting to come to an end. I never really thought he would extend his coaching career past his contract, but now it seems like it may happen. I know it's early, but this is terrific news regardless. It's great to see he wants to remain with the Lakers
I think PJax genuinely loves the players on this Laker roster. He came into a situation where the franchise was in dissaray and helped them come together as a unit with the same goal in mind. With the youth of this team, their potential, and the core players under contract, PJax probably wants to see if the Lakers can become not just a championship team again, but a dynasty once again.
<div class="quote_poster">Lakers4Life Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">10 years 100 million</div> 10 more years of Phil? I'm down
That is definitely good news to all Laker fans. Phil Jackson definitely is a very important piece to this team.
It's strange because Tex Winter is like double Phil Jacksons age and he seems pretty healthy. I know he doesn't have as much pressure as Phil, but he's pretty healthy for someone 100 years old.
Great news to hear that Phil is really thinking of coming back. I'm really hoping that he does come back.
