Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas Jackson is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association. Jackson is a 13-time NBA champion, having won two as a player and 11 as a head coach. His 11 championships as a head coach is the most in NBA history. In 2007, Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 10 greatest coaches in league history in 1996. He holds numerous other records as a coach, including the most postseason wins, and most conference titles.
Jackson played college basketball for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks for three years, and was selected in the 1967 NBA draft by the New York Knicks, with whom he won two NBA titles as a player. After playing thirteen seasons in the league, he began coaching in minor basketball leagues for five years before he was hired as the assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls in 1987.
Jackson was later promoted to head coach of the Bulls in 1989, and he helped the team win six championships. In 1999, Jackson was hired as a head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he coached the team to three consecutive titles from 2000 to 2002. Following the Lakers' loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals, he took a season off from coaching and returned to the Lakers in 2005, winning two more championships before his retirement in 2011. He later was team president of the New York Knicks, where he began his playing career, from 2014 to 2017.
Jackson is known for his use of Tex Winter's triangle offense as well as a holistic approach to coaching that was influenced by Eastern philosophy, garnering him the nickname "Zen Master". Jackson cited Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as one of the major guiding forces in his life. He also applied Native American spiritual practices as documented in his book Sacred Hoops. He is the author of several candid books about his teams and his basketball strategies.
Early life
Jackson was born in Deer Lodge, Montana, on September 17, 1945. His parents, Charles and Elisabeth Funk Jackson, were Assemblies of God ministers. Elisabeth came from a long line of German Mennonites before her conversion to the Assemblies of God. In the churches that they served, his father, Charles, generally preached on Sunday mornings and his mother on Sunday evenings. Eventually, his father became a ministerial supervisor. Phil, his two brothers, and his half-sister grew up in a remote area of Montana in an austere environment, in which no dancing or television was allowed. Jackson did not see his first movie until he was a senior in high school, and went to a dance for the first time in college. Growing up, he assumed he would become a minister.Jackson attended high school in Williston, North Dakota, where he played varsity basketball and led the team to a state title. He also played football, was a pitcher on the baseball team, and threw the discus in track and field competitions. The high school now has a sports complex named after him. His brother Chuck speculated years later that the three Jackson sons threw themselves passionately into athletics because it was the only time they were allowed to do what other children were doing. Jackson attracted the attention of several baseball scouts. Their notes found their way to future NBA coach Bill Fitch, who had previously coached baseball, and had been doing some scouting for the Milwaukee Braves. Fitch took over as head basketball coach at the University of North Dakota in the spring of 1962, during Jackson's junior year of high school.
College career
Bill Fitch successfully recruited Jackson to the University of North Dakota, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Jackson did well there, helping the Fighting Sioux to third- and fourth-place finishes in the NCAA Division II tournament in his sophomore and junior years. Both years, they were beaten by the Southern Illinois Salukis. Jackson's future Knicks teammate Walt Frazier was the Salukis' biggest star, but the two only faced off in 1965, as Frazier was academically ineligible in 1966.Professional playing career
New York Knicks (1967–1978)
In 1967, Jackson was drafted in the second round by the New York Knicks. While he was a good all-around athlete, with unusually long arms, he was limited offensively but compensated with intelligence and hard work on defense. Jackson eventually established himself as a fan favorite and one of the NBA's leading substitutes, although he had very little playing time. He was a top reserve on the Knicks team that won the NBA title in 1973. Jackson did not play during New York's 1969–70 championship season due to spinal fusion surgery; however, he authored a book entitled Take It All, a photo diary of the Knicks' 1970 championship run.Soon after the 1973 title, several key starters retired, creating an opening for Jackson in the starting lineup. In the 1974–75 NBA season, Jackson and the Milwaukee Bucks' Bob Dandridge shared the lead for total personal fouls, with 330 each. Jackson lived in Leonia, New Jersey, during this time.
New Jersey Nets (1978–1980)
After crossing the Hudson in 1978 to play two seasons for the New Jersey Nets, Jackson retired as a player after the 1979–80 NBA season.Coaching career
CBA and Puerto Rico (1983–1987)
In the years following the end of his playing career, Jackson began his head coaching career in the Continental Basketball Association and Puerto Rico's Baloncesto Superior Nacional.After his playing retirement, Jackson moved to his summer home near Glacier National Park in Montana. He was slated to lead the basketball program at nearby Flathead Valley Community College but it was dissolved due to a lack of funds.
On January 26, 1983, Jackson was appointed as head coach for the Albany Patroons of the CBA. He replaced Dean Meminger, his former teammate on the Knicks. Jackson decided to coach in the CBA over college basketball because he considered it as better preparation for coaching in the NBA. Jackson won his first coaching championship with the Patroons, leading them to their first title in 1984. He was named the CBA Coach of the Year in 1985.
In Puerto Rico, he coached the Piratas de Quebradillas and the Gallitos de Isabela. He regularly sought NBA jobs, but was turned down. Jackson had acquired a reputation for being sympathetic to the counterculture during his playing years, which may have scared off potential NBA employers.
Chicago Bulls (1987–1998)
On October 10, 1987, Jackson was hired as an assistant coach by the Chicago Bulls under Doug Collins. He was promoted to head coach after Collins was fired in 1989. It was around this time that he met Tex Winter and became a devotee of Winter's triangle offense.Over nine seasons, Jackson and the Bulls made the playoffs every year and won six championships, winning three straight championships over separate three-year periods.
After losing to the Detroit Pistons in the 1990 conference finals, Jackson convinced Michael Jordan to adopt Winter's triangle offense in order to counter the Pistons' Jordan Rules defensive strategy, and the Bulls swept the Pistons in the 1991 conference finals, enroute to defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Two more championships followed, against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1992 and Phoenix Suns in 1993. The "three-peat" was the first since the Boston Celtics won eight titles in a row from 1959 through 1966. Jordan's first retirement after the 1992–1993 season marked the end of the first "three-peat". In 1994, Jackson's Bulls faced the New York Knicks in the playoffs for the fourth consecutive time ; this time the Knicks won in seven games in the conference semi-finals. The physical defense of the Knicks against the Bulls' superstars Jordan and Scottie Pippen during the 1992 playoffs had led to a feud between Jackson and Riley regarding the officiating and the Knicks' rough style of play.
Although Jordan returned just before the 1995 playoffs, it was not enough to prevent a playoff elimination by the Orlando Magic at the conference semi-finals. For 1995-96, the revamped Bulls featured only Jordan and Scottie Pippen as the returning players from the 1991-93 "three-peat", plus the controversial trade for Dennis Rodman. Nonetheless, the Bulls set a regular season record of 72-10 before sweeping the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals and then winning their fourth title over the Seattle SuperSonics in six games. The Bulls won their fifth and sixth titles over the Utah Jazz in 1997 and 1998, respectively, although the 1997-98 roster was aging and plagued by injuries to starters Pippen and Steve Kerr. The Bulls also twice defeated the Miami Heat coached by Pat Riley, in 1996 first round playoffs and 1997 Eastern Conference Finals, en route to their championship wins. In the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls needed seven games to overcome the Indiana Pacers led by first-year head coach Larry Bird.
Despite the Bulls' success, tension between Jackson and Bulls general manager Jerry Krause grew. Some believed that Krause felt under-recognized for building a championship team and believed that Jackson was indebted to him for giving him his first NBA coaching job. In the summer of 1997, Jackson was not invited to the wedding of Krause's stepdaughter, although all of the Bulls' assistant coaches were, as was Tim Floyd, then head coach at Iowa State, Jackson's eventual successor. After contentious negotiations, in which Jordan intervened saying that he would not play for any other head coach, Jackson received a one-year contract extension only for the 1997–98 season. Krause publicly portrayed Jackson as a two-faced character who had very little regard for his assistant coaches. Ultimately the final decision was up to team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who offered Jackson the opportunity to return as head coach for 1998-99, but made it clear that the team would have to go into a rebuild because other than Jordan, the rest of the players were at the end of the productive years and they would be too expensive to re-sign. Jackson refused by saying that he didn't want to coach a bad team and left after his contact expired. After the Bulls' final title of the Jordan era in 1998, Jackson left the team vowing never to coach again.