Phil Jackson Ready for Hall Induction

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Jeanie Buss, his girlfriend, will be there, and so will ex-wife June.

His kids and their significant others will be there, along with his grandkids, another group of 13. His former teammate and roommate, Bill Bradley, will introduce him along with his longtime coach and friend, Tex Winter.

The whole group will be something of his own personal basketball congregation, which perhaps is the appropriate metaphor for Phil Jackson's induction Friday into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"Basketball has been an adventure," Jackson ruminated the other day after his summer haircut as he prepared for the trip east. "My basketball life, like me, became more family and togetherness, the long nights in North Dakota driving 200 miles on icy, two-lane roads to play basketball, the CBA [coaching and driving the van], coaching in Puerto Rico summers, it all gave me the background and the endurance to stick with it with great support from my family.

"It was a team. You took one of us, you took us all [with four children]. That was the most special thing (Jackson will read a poem by son Ben at his induction about the minor-league coaching times). It was emblematic of what I wanted to be known as being a coach. Teaching a team philosophy.

"I definitely didn't think I'd be here. I tried to get out many times. I always hoped I'd have a higher calling. My mother wanted me to be a minister. ? I always told my mother, 'I may not have a congregation, but I have 12 disciples.' With the rosters now at 15, I can't use that anymore."</div>

Source: Chicago Tribune