It’s official now.
LeBron James’ management team, led by his former teammate Maverick Carter, has officially announced that his decision on which team he picks as a free agent this summer will be based entirely on the opportunity to win championships.
Money will not be an issue for LeBron James. Repeat, money will not be an issue.
That [...]
Yes, we all know that Phil Jackson is the smartest basketball coach in the known universe. So it stands to reason that, with his prodigious memory, lofty IQ and exquisite deductive powers, Jackson just doesn’t screw up very often.
Yet when he does make a mistake, it’s often a real lulu, a stupendous boner.
For example, there [...]
Phil Jackson’s heading into what may be his final season coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. After more than a decade with the guy, do Lakers fans really know him? To aid in answering that question, I’ve included an excerpt here from my Jackson biography, Mindgames, published first in hardcover by McGraw-Hill in 2000. An updated [...]
We owe so much to that daggone Tex Winter.
Take, for example, the use of the word “facilitator.”
In Winter’s complex triangle offense, you have to have someone who sort of pilots the machine, who gets the group into the offense, makes the key passes, helps the group through its reads and changes.
Someone who sets things up.
That’s [...]
Lord knows I don’t want to saddle Luke Walton with any sort of “savior” label as he prepares to return to the Los Angeles Lakers bench after weeks of nursing a back injury.
After all, it’s going to take time and patience for Walton to work his way back in. He’s only played two dozen games [...]
If you read closely between the lines of his recent comments, you can actually hear Lakers coach Phil Jackson mumbling “Uncle.”
The big guy is giving in. He’s not going to go tit for tat with team owner Jerry Buss over his coaching contract for next season and beyond.
Speaking to the media this week, Jackson acknowledged [...]
I guess I’m flattered.
First Jeanie Buss and now Lakers owner Jerry Buss have come forward to address my observations about the organization’s inner conflicts, particularly the job status of coach Phil Jackson (Jeanie’s boyfriend who used to wear a soul patch).
At least Jeanie addressed me by name. Jerry chose longtime Lakers writer Steve Springer to [...]
So it is a poker game.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson confirmed as much recently when he opened up about Jerry Buss, the team’s 77-year-old owner.
“He’s a gambler,” Jackson told reporters before a recent game in Los Angeles. “He knows the odds, he knows when to take the risks. I think he carries that sense of this [...]
