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 [...]
Phil Jackson is the master of match-ups. He knows that factor singularly rules the order of succession, not just in the playoffs, but on a nightly basis in the NBA.
It’s just that the match-up issues are more profound in the playoffs.
So now we have a fresh four-team tournament before us, the NBA’s version of a [...]
Elgin Baylor never won an NBA championship ring.
So how could you even consider him the All-Time MVP of the NBA Playoffs?
Well, you have to at least consider Baylor among the nominees along with Boston’s great Bill Russell (the centerpiece of 11 championship teams), Chicago’s Michael Jordan, and a select few others. By the way, the [...]
All fans of the Los Angeles Lakers and West Virginia Mountaineers know just how much the spectre of Jerry West looms over their teams. The source of his great competitiveness West drew from his mother Cecile. In honor of Mother’s Day, I offer this excerpt from my book, “Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of [...]
Jeanie Buss comes clean now? It strains credulity.
I reported more than two months ago that there was some conflict within the Los Angeles Lakers, that Phil Jackson (Jeanie’s boyfriend) might not come back to coach the team next year because her father (Lakers owner Jerry Buss) might not want him back.
Jackson himself confirmed as much [...]
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 [...]
