The year was 1987. In the city of Chicago there was a buzz surrounding a budding superstar named Michael Jordan. He had all the tools and talent to be the best player in the league, but had so far floundered in the NBA playoffs. It was around that time when one of the most remarkably uninteresting hires was made.
The Chicago Bulls hired a 43 year-old, former player, as an assistant to help the often overwhelmed head coach, Doug Collins. The assistant had no previous NBA coaching experience. In fact, his last coaching job had been in a semi-professional league in Puerto Rico. At that time, nobody could have imagined how this assistant coach from Montana would re-write the history books, and transform basketball as we know it.
To truly understand Phil Jackson is almost impossible. Constant smirks and timely media jabs are expected from Jackson these days, but back in 1987 he was nothing more than a man looking for a chance to make a name for himself.
After being hired by the Bulls, Jackson bided his time with Collins at the helm. Around this time he met the man that would change his career. Tex Winter may be the most influential person the basketball world has never heard of. Winter’s so-called ‘triangle offense’ intrigued Jackson, and for good reason.
While nobody knew it at the time, this fateful meeting and subsequent teaming up of these two brilliant minds would forever change the NBA. Next: Running with the Bulls Just two years after being hired as a low-level assistant coach in Chicago, Phil Jackson was promoted. Much skepticism surrounded the hire, as few expected a man with so little head coaching experience to do what Doug Collins could not, take Jordan and the Bulls to the top. 
Living up to expectations has been something Phil Jackson has mastered in his time on the NBA sideline. Winning is very difficult in professional sports. Winning when everybody expects you to win is even trickier. By the time June of 1996 hit, Jackson had led his Bulls to a NBA-record 72 wins, while suffering defeat a mere 10 times. Jackson won his first, and so far only Coach of the Year award.
More importantly than the individual accolades was the team success. Jackson has always emphasized the role of the team, and has benefited because of it. To no surprise, Jackson’s Bulls won the title in 1996, defeating the Seattle Super Sonics, who were the Western Conference’s version of a sacrificial lamb.
The next two seasons weren’t much different. The Bulls cruised through the regular season, setting records left and right. All the while Jackson sat back and let his team take care of business, chiming in where he needed to. Unfortunately, small chinks in the previously impenetrable armor began to arise as a private feud between Jackson and Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause became public.
As the tension grew off the court, the Bulls continued to thrive on the court. Jackson was all-business, and helped his team fight through potential distractions. Looking back now, ignoring distractions has been one of the reasons Jackson has experienced such success.
Many coaches, in all sports, have seen their careers derailed because of how they chose to deal with a certain player or situation. Some coaches demand control. Others demand a level of professionalism out of their players. Jackson demands success. Very rarely has Jackson let a potentially infectious situation poison his team. This was evident in 1996, and is still obvious in 2010.
Of the many advantages Phil Jackson has had over other coaches and teams during his NBA tenure, his greatest advantage is the one pundits never bring up – psychological.
While the cancerous relationship between Jackson and the Chicago front office continued, the Bulls won two more championships in 1997 and 1998. They had pulled off an unprecedented ‘repeat three-peat.’ Once again Phil Jackson called the accomplishment ‘unreal.’ Funny how life works.
Next: A Messy Divorce and a Fresh Start
The feud between Jackson and Jerry Krause finally reached a boiling point in 1998. Jackson accused Krause of rooting against his own team purely to see Jackson fail. Krause told the media that Jackson’s charm wasn’t as infectious behind the scenes. Both refused to back down, which resulted in an inevitable explosion.
Jackson left the Bulls following the teams sixth championship in 1998. Chicago replaced him with Iowa State coach Tim Floyd. Floyd coached less than four seasons in Chicago, never winning more than 17 games. Jackson fell off the map. He took his six rings and disappeared, vowing never to coach again.
Out in Los Angeles a young basketball team had all the pieces but none of the glue. They were eerily similar to another talented team from a decade earlier. However, building a championship caliber team is a tricky thing. It’s not a question of mathematics, but chemistry.
The General Manager of the Lakers, the legendary Jerry West, knew this to be true. While he could have as much fun as he wanted on that theoretical calculator, without the ultimate chemist his team would never be able to achieve its full potential.
At first, West was hesitant to bring in Phil Jackson and the ego that came with him. After the unpleasant divorce in Chicago, there were questions surrounding Jackson and his tactics. All those questions came with the knowledge that West couldn’t ignore. Results don’t lie. Jackson was a six time NBA champion as a coach, and was able to fight through distraction while still coaching one of the most dominant teams in league history.
West knew there were no other alternatives. On June 17, 1999, the Lakers signed Phil Jackson as their next head coach. Not only was Jackson back in the NBA, he was in its most distraction-laden city, Los Angeles.
It was appropriate, if you think about it, because Jackson’s story is that of Hollywood lore. A small-town boy makes it big in Los Angeles? One word comes to mind once again. Unreal.
Next: More of the Same
Jackson’s impact on the Lakers was immediate. Before Jackson’s arrival, they were a young team full of talent and turmoil. The previous head coach, Del Harris, was never able to find a consistent medium between the veterans and young players, which resulted in obvious disruption. With Jackson calling the shots, the Lakers fell into place like a finely tuned automobile.
The on-court results of Phil Jackson’s coaching was nothing short of miraculous. Los Angeles won 67 games during the regular season, the second highest single-season win total in Lakers history. While this was certainly a thrill for the city of Los Angeles and Lakers fans everywhere, everybody knew that Phil Jackson was brought to Los Angeles for one reason; championships.
Entering the playoffs as the number one overall seed, the Lakers were the clear-cut favorites to bring home that elusive twelfth Larry O’Brien trophy. Los Angeles played great in the 2000 postseason, but struggled closing out series’. After jumping to 2-0, 3-0, and 3-1 series leads against Sacramento, Phoenix, and Portland respectively, Los Angeles finished 3-5 in series-clinching games.
While many teams felt this was a potential fault of Jackson’s, he knew it was nothing more than a young team finding itself in the midst of heated competition. Los Angeles reached the NBA Finals for the first time since 1991, this time taking home the prize by dispatching the Indiana Pacers in a 6-game series.
Phil Jackson had done it again. It seemed almost impossible that he was able to win his seventh NBA championship in just his first year as head coach in Los Angeles. It was Jackson’s first title without Michael Jordan, which quieted many of the arguments surrounding his alleged geographical ‘luck.’
The real mystery surrounding the Lakers dynasty of the early 2000’s was why anyone questioned what would happen next. Los Angeles won two more NBA titles in 2001 and ’02, completing Jackson’s third three-peat. Throughout those seasons the Lakers faced numerous obstacles, most of which were internal.
Next: The Ugly Side of Sports
The budding rivalry between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant reached potentially disastrous heights multiple times during the Lakers three-peat run, but Jackson was always able to successfully mediate the situation. Just as he had done in Chicago, Jackson kept the Lakers on track through his psychological prowess.
He never caved to players demands or media pressure, but never was outwardly harsh either. Players began to understand that a Phil Jackson comment to the media was not a personal attack, but a motivational tool. Phil Jackson was succeeding in a dangerous game that had cost many a coach their job before him. The ultimate chemist had once again found the perfect blend for success. We have seen history repeat itself numerous times with Phil Jackson. In the summer of 2004 it repeated itself again, this time in an ugly way. Just as it had ended in Chicago, Jackson’s tenure in Los Angeles ended abruptly and explosively. Jackson was the first piece of a restructuring effort made by the Los Angeles front office. With Jackson gone, so was the chemistry. Shaquille O’Neal, the catalyst for the three championships earlier that decade, was traded shortly thereafter. Other staple veterans also exited, leaving the team a shell of its former self. Once again Jackson faded into the mist. Other than the release of a controversial book, The Last Season, that described in great detail the crumbling of the Lakers dynasty, Jackson was again out of the public spotlight. Without Jackson leading the way, the team sputtered. In order to maximize their remaining years with superstar Kobe Bryant, they needed a coach who could handle his explosive personality and sometimes off-putting behavior. Less than a year after he had announced his departure from the team, Jackson was back. While the team continued to struggle his first two years back on the bench, a precedent had been set. While they weren’t necessarily the best of friends, Jackson and Bryant had developed a level of mutual respect that would allow them to reach that sporting pinnacle once again. Next: Stranger Than Fiction After an unsuccessful trip to the NBA Finals in 2008, the Lakers won the title in 2009. It was the tenth title of Phil Jackson’s career, allowing him to finally overtake Red Auerbach as the head coach with the most NBA championships in league history. All the debate over who held the more valuable 9 titles was over. 22 years after being hired as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson was the winningest coach in league history. Unreal.
When the Lakers won the title in 2009 there were whispers around the league at what it could mean. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Jackson seemed to have developed a habit when it came to NBA titles.
Speculation surrounding this seemingly impossible scenario strengthened after Jackson led the Lakers to the title again in 2010, his eleventh as a coach.
As if his resume wasn’t impressive enough, Jackson added a bit more to his legacy early in the 2010-2011 season. With a win against the Phoenix Suns on an otherwise meaningless Friday night, Phil Jackson became the fastest coach in league history to reach 1,100 wins. He accomplished the feat in a mere 1,560 games with Chicago and Los Angeles. It seems that everything about Phil Jackson is hard to believe.
Nobody knows what the future holds, and you can only learn so much from the past. With Phil Jackson, however, you almost know what you’re going to get, which is what is so amazing about the situation. When you consider just how unlikely this story is, the more remarkable it becomes.
Just how does an oversized youth from Deer Lodge, Montana turn into the face of Chicago and later Los Angeles? How does a former reserve player with a career average of 6.7 points per game demand the respect of a man who scored 81 in a single night?
The mystery and aura of Phil Jackson is what makes this story so much better. Jackson has said it himself, multiple times. It’s simply unreal.
Next: Journey to the Ring
After that championship win in 2010, the one that gave Jackson his eleventh NBA championship as a coach, the Lakers head coach released an amazingly detailed look at what it takes to reach the basketball zenith.
This behind-the-scenes look at the Lakers 2009-2010 season is a perfect way to help readers visually picture the aura of Phil Jackson, and take a detailed look behind the curtain at how Phil Jackson is able to keep his players with the ultimate goal in mind.
Journey to the Ring is an intimate look at Jackson and his Lakers, and gives the reader rare insight into the championship journey, from beginning to end.
Get a Copy by Clicking Here – Journey to the Ring
Also, check out our Rings Happens in Threes shirt as our tribute to the greatest coach ever.