Phil Jackson retired after the Lakers lost to the Mavericks. He is one of the coaches I look up to. Not just because of his success (11 titles) but how he went about getting them. People talk about why Phil was so successful in terms of his triangle offense, his calm demeanor, his intense preparation, his Buddhism, but this quote may be the most correct, and it's one of the many reasons why I try to be like Phil:
"Steve Kerr told me once that what made Jackson special -- and Popovich too -- was that he cared about his twelfth guy as much as his best guy. He spent time with his players, bought them gifts, thought about what made them tick. He connected with them, sold them on the concept of a team, stuck up for them when they needed him. His actual coaching -- calling plays, working refs, figuring out lineups and everything else that we see -- was a smaller piece of a much bigger picture. His players competed for him for many reasons, but mainly because they truly believed Jackson cared about them. Which he definitely did."
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons%2F110513&sportCat=nba
That somehow reminds me (unrelated) of Jordan, I think that when Jackson told Jordan "there is no I in team" Jordan replied "but there is in wIn."
ReplyDeleteWell it went more like Jackson telling Jordan to stop hagging the ball "you need to start passing the ball to open players. Remember, Michael, there is no "I" in team." .. and Jordan replied "Yeah, but there is in Win".. at least that's what the story goes like..
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