Without question, he is the greatest coach in professional sports.
Arguably, the greatest coach on any level, ever. Phil Jackson had great coaching mentorship from his time in New York under Red Holtzman, and with the Knickerbockers, he was a part of two championship teams in 1970 and 1973 with Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier.
He coached the two greatest NBA duos, which include three of the greatest perimeter position players of all time. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are the two greatest two-guards to ever play, and probably the two greatest players of all time, period. And during his time, there was no better all-around utility player than Scottie Pippen. Phil mentored them to two three-peats in the 90’s, and who knows how many they would have won if Jordan didn’t retire.
In his first three years in Los Angeles, Jackson mentored Shaquille O’Neal on how to dominate, and in turn, they won three straight titles. Shaq is also arguably the greatest center of all time in terms of dominance, and he is certainly the greatest of his generation.
Did I mention Phil was the coach of both the team with the best regular season and best postseason records, ever? The 1995-1996 Bulls went 72-10, a record that has yet to be beaten. And Phil’s Lakers in 2000-2001 went 15-1 towards the best postseason run in NBA history.
Phil was the architect of the two most dominant dynasties in recent years, as he led the Chicago Bulls to six championships in the 90’s, and then five more in the past decade with the Los Angeles Lakers. He had to deal with massive egos, the beefing in LA with Shaq and Kobe, front office headaches with Jim Buss and Jerry Krause, and Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman.
The man was blessed with a bevy of talent each year, and managed to get to the Finals 13 times, and he won 11 in the process. And with the help of Tex Winter, he ran the most successful system offense in pro basketball – the Triple Post Offense, which is more popularly known as the Triangle. (And it is a real travesty that he only has one “Coach of the Year” Award, and he got robbed of the 2004 title due to injuries to key people. Detroit, that was a fluke.)
So it is really funny to see how Phil Jackson, with all his credentials as author and world champion, has trouble with… Twitter.
Yesterday, there was a lot of talk about how Phil typed in his very first tweet.
11 champ;ipnsikp[ ringhs
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) March 27, 2013
Apparently, there was a reason why.
Much betteraol.it/10lkjGj
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) March 28, 2013
