THE ZEN MASTER'S PLACE IN HISTORY

Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers captured the 15th NBA championship in their franchise history with a 99-86 victory over the Orlando Magic. It also marked the record 10th championship for Phil Jackson, as he has now moved ahead of Red Auerbach for the most championships by a coach in any of the four major North American sports.

The question that many are asking now is where does Jackson rank among the all-time coaches/managers in sports? No one can take away his ten championships, but skeptics have always gotten on him for having the best players in the NBA. Prior to this year, he won six championships with the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and three in Los Angeles with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. I don't disagree with those people that say Jackson basically won the lottery when he inherited the Bulls from Doug Collins when they were set to peak in 1989. He then caught a second big break when he took the Lakers' job right before they were set to win championships in 1999. I cannot argue that other coaches would have won with those rosters.

Let me ask these critics a stupid question though. What great coach won without great players? Auerbach won with an absolutely loaded Boston Celtics team. The Celtics had the likes of Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Sam and KC Jones, and John Havlicek. Don't forget that Auerbach was not even the coach when the Celtics won their last two titles in that era. Russell was the player-coach in their 1968 and 1969 title years. Pat Riley won four titles with Magic, Kareem, and James Worthy. He then won a fifth with Dwyane Wade and Shaq in Miami. Gregg Popovich has won four rings with Tim Duncan. John Kundla won five championships with George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers back in the 1950s. I am not trying to diminish these coaches' accomplishments, but for some reason, Jackson has always gotten much more abuse than them when it comes to their championships.

If you are one of those people who feel Jackson has been lucky, then I point to championship #10. After the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons in 2004, Jackson stepped down and the mighty Shaq was traded to Miami. The Lakers were reduced to a .500 team at best when Jackson returned to the bench a year later. However, Jackson slienced the critics and has done a remarkable job rebuilding the Lakers without the roster he is used to having. Sure, Kobe Byrant is an all-time great, but this Lakers team does not have the secondary player or depth to their roster that his Bulls or earlier Lakers teams had. They did rip off Memphis to get Pau Gasol, but he is a far cry from what Pippen was to Jordan or what Byrant was to O'Neal.

In my opinion, Phil Jackson is the greatest coach to ever grace the sidelines in NBA history. It is not only because he now has the record for championships, but he has won with really four different teams with many different egos. The first three-peat and second three-peat with Chicago were with two very different rosters. The Lakers' three-peat was a totally different team than the one Jackson has just won with now. Whether it was Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause giving the Bulls hell in the late 90s or Kobe and Shaq sparring off in this decade, Jackson's leadership held those teams together. A lot of credit has to be given to his mentor Tex Winter and his creation of the triangle-offense, but Jackson has been more than lucky, he has been the all-time greatest.

Pat Morgan