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Jackson could walk away
Source: Agencies |
June 25, 2010, Friday
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PHIL Jackson thinks he is just about ready to walk away from his unparalleled National Basketball Association coaching career but the Los Angeles Lakers are all hoping he will change his mind in the next week.
The 11-time NBA champion coach said on Wednesday he is leaning toward retirement. After a full season of speculation on his health and future, Jackson will wait for the results of another battery of medical tests before informing Lakers owner Jerry Buss of his final decision late next week.
The 64-year-old Jackson is the most successful coach in league history by almost any measure, with a .705 regular-season winning percentage, a record 225 postseason victories and two more titles than Boston's Red Auerbach. His Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA finals last week to win their second straight title, and Jackson sounds increasingly keen on going out on top.
"Some of it's about health," Jackson said. "Some of it is just the way I feel right now. I've had vacillating feelings about it. It's hard not to feel like coming back when you ... have an opportunity to coach a team that's this good, but it's what I feel like right now."
Jackson will drive to his offseason home in Montana this weekend. He didn't attend the Lakers' victory parade through downtown Los Angeles on Monday, instead undergoing tests on a body with two replaced hips, a sore knee requiring a brace under his suit during the season, and a previous heart problem.
These accumulated woes and the NBA's onerous travel schedule have prompted retirement thoughts for several years.
After a second day of exit interviews at their training complex, the Lakers uniformly said they want Jackson with them next season, with Kobe Bryant claiming the club would be "drastically different" without Jackson's steady, cerebral presence on the sideline.
"We all want him back," Bryant said. "He knows that. I've stressed it to him over and over. "
If the Lakers lose Jackson, his job likely would be among the most coveted in sports. Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest are locked into long-term contracts with the Lakers, who might have their pick from a list of candidates that could include Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, former Lakers guard Byron Scott and veteran coach Jeff Van Gundy.
The 11-time NBA champion coach said on Wednesday he is leaning toward retirement. After a full season of speculation on his health and future, Jackson will wait for the results of another battery of medical tests before informing Lakers owner Jerry Buss of his final decision late next week.
The 64-year-old Jackson is the most successful coach in league history by almost any measure, with a .705 regular-season winning percentage, a record 225 postseason victories and two more titles than Boston's Red Auerbach. His Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA finals last week to win their second straight title, and Jackson sounds increasingly keen on going out on top.
"Some of it's about health," Jackson said. "Some of it is just the way I feel right now. I've had vacillating feelings about it. It's hard not to feel like coming back when you ... have an opportunity to coach a team that's this good, but it's what I feel like right now."
Jackson will drive to his offseason home in Montana this weekend. He didn't attend the Lakers' victory parade through downtown Los Angeles on Monday, instead undergoing tests on a body with two replaced hips, a sore knee requiring a brace under his suit during the season, and a previous heart problem.
These accumulated woes and the NBA's onerous travel schedule have prompted retirement thoughts for several years.
After a second day of exit interviews at their training complex, the Lakers uniformly said they want Jackson with them next season, with Kobe Bryant claiming the club would be "drastically different" without Jackson's steady, cerebral presence on the sideline.
"We all want him back," Bryant said. "He knows that. I've stressed it to him over and over. "
If the Lakers lose Jackson, his job likely would be among the most coveted in sports. Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest are locked into long-term contracts with the Lakers, who might have their pick from a list of candidates that could include Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, former Lakers guard Byron Scott and veteran coach Jeff Van Gundy.
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