Daily News: Jackson ready to ride on Sunset Blvd?

Mamba · Jun 13, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. - Poetry or passion?

Should the Lakers win the championship tonight in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, that will be the question Phil Jackson will have to answer in the offseason.

Though he is most closely associated with Chicago and Los Angeles, Jackson's soul has always been at home on the plains, in his home state of North Dakota, and his adopted home in Flathead Lake, Mont.

Under these big cloudless skies, many a legend has ridden off into the sunset, leaving admirers wanting more.

Another title would be Jackson's 10th, putting him alone among his peers, and one ahead of the only peer - Red Auerbach - coaching greats are measured against.

The poetry of the moment would be as elegant as the symbolism, Jackson, 63, finally smoking a cigar to toast Auerbach and celebrate passing him in the NBA's annals, then riding out of town on Interstate 15 - or one of the less-crowded roads he prefers - to retire by his lake.

In that same moment will flow a passion for the game he has always loved, and might not be ready to let go of just yet.

The decision might not come immediately, or even in a few days or weeks.

But the question will not change: Poetry or passion?

"I think we all hoped Michael Jordan would do that after he hit the shot (to win the 1998 NBA Finals) because his career was such a storied career," Jackson said Saturday afternoon, walking through the hallways of Amway Arena.

"But it's not like I'm a player or anything else, it has more to do with whether enough's enough."

Those closest to him, the men who stand by his side during games and throughout the long NBA seasons, say they don't know yet which way Jackson is leaning.

Jackson has one year remaining on his contract, but has vacillated multiple times when asked about his future plans.

"I just think he'll go year to year, just see how he feels," said Jackson's longtime assistant, Frank Hamblen. "This time of year, it's been a long season. He's going to check in with his doctors, see how he's doing health-wise, then make a decision.

"I think he signed for another year, and I think they want to extend him after that. ... This team has got a window of winning championships."

Brian Shaw, the youngest assistant coach on Jackson's staff who, along with Kurt Rambis, has often been mentioned as a possible successor, agreed with Hamblen that health will weigh heavily on Jackson's mind when he makes his decision.

"I haven't thought about it at all, to tell you the truth," Shaw said. "I've been concentrating on just getting this championship.

"I think some days he is (passionate), some days he kind of struggles. We all have our little ailments. But it always makes it feel better when you win."

As for his own future, Shaw said: "One day I would like to try my hand at being a head coach, but I think that all kind of takes care of itself and plays itself out, however it's going to play itself out.

"Other than that, I just kind of go about my daily duties and whatever happens is going to happen."

At the beginning of the season, Lakers owner Jerry Buss said he'd like Jackson to stick around even longer than his current contract, though Jackson later laughed off those comments.

"With this team, he may grow very old and still be the coach," Buss said. "I don't see him going anywhere. It depends on him. This team looks like a delight and I don't see anybody walking away from it. I won't give you a number of years, but I have to think he's going to stay longer than we would have imagined."

Should the Lakers win the franchise's 15th NBA title tonight, or sometime later this week, it will be Jackson's 10th title since 1991, with two seasons off in between.

Those are staggering statistics, especially in this era of free agency, expansion and the salary cap.

Still, there will always be some - like the late Auerbach - who say that Jackson has only won with ready-made championship teams.

Jackson's current superstar, Kobe Bryant, laughed at that notion Saturday.

"I can't name one coach that won a championship with a bunch of scrubs, so that argument makes no sense," Bryant said.

Jackson has coached Bryant in two iterations: first, from 2000-04 when Bryant was a young superstar who needed a bit of guidance to help climb the NBA's highest mountain to win a title with Shaquille O'Neal; and again, from 2006 through the present, with Bryant as a maturing superstar, who needed a bit of guidance to help climb the NBA's highest mountain and win a title without Shaquille O'Neal.

"I've been spoiled my whole career playing with Phil," Bryant said. "It's hard to imagine playing for anybody else. I grew up with him."

Should they succeed together tonight, both Bryant and Jackson will have a decision to make - Bryant can opt out of his current deal after the season ends - though neither would acknowledge it is on their mind.

"I think he's more amused by everybody thinking that he's thinking that," Bryant said of his coach possibly leaving. "He's really just in the moment."

If and when that championship moment arrives, and Jackson is confronted, in the present tense, with a decision between poetry or passion, it will not be an unfamiliar feeling.

He has left basketball twice before, most recently in 2004 when the Lakers lost to Detroit in the NBA Finals. At that time, he felt so sure of the finality of his decision, he later penned a book entitled, "The Last Season."

In that 2005 book, he wrote, "So what now? Will I ever coach again?

"The way I feel today, it's highly doubtful. I do not want to deal with any more plane flights, hotels or egos. But then again, I thought the very same thing in 1998 when I left the game for a year.

"I missed it. I missed the joy of the journey of watching the guys I coached grow to become better players, and better men.

"The addiction to coaching is a powerful one, which is why so many come back over and over and over. I don't suspect I've got a serious case, but I am probably as susceptible to this drug as anyone else. I would never rule anything out.

"Since the early 1960s, I've played or coached in more than 2,000 games, and I can say safely there is nothing I've experienced outside of basketball that can match its intensity, its highs and lows, its feeling of fulfillment or failure. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without it."

Four years have passed since the day he penned those poetic words. Four years of rebirth, renewal and maybe even a return to glory.

The question is unchanged: Poetry or passion?
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http://www.dailynews.com/lakers/ci_12587452

Mamba · Jun 13, 2009

I think Phil will be back and ready to go for #11 next year!

tim · Jun 13, 2009

He'll never see #11...not with David Kahn running the Wolves to the top!!

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Daily News: Jackson ready to ride on Sunset Blvd?

Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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