Tip Off Timer: Title No. 10 Ended Debate Over Jackson's Place in History

You can't be serious calling Phil Jackson the greatest coach ever. First, it took Jackson 19 years to win 10 titles. Red Auerbach only 16 years to win 9 titles. Is the total number of championships the only criteria Tim?
9 out of 16 is better than 10 out of 19. How can you argue that?
Also, Auerbach has 16 titles including GM and President positions. Also, Red personally built his teams. Jackson inherited great teams built by others.

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Mike's got it right. 16 ought to be the actual number. And if not for the tragic and untimely deaths of two potential superstar players, the number might even be higher.

Too often when it comes to sports records we take the teleological approach, which the dictionary defines as "Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in nature or history." It's the Historical Fallacy of looking at history in reverse, as if it were one vast and programmed entity, with each event merely a link in the chain.

For example, and leaving aside the controversies involing PEDs that have recently plagued sports, is Usain Bolt really the greatest sprinter in history? Maybe, but consider that Jesse Owens, Rafer Johnson, and Bob Hayes ran on cinder tracks in leather shoes with spikes.

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While I think Phil Jackson is one of the greatest ever, I do think that he had the benfit of jumping into better situations than Auerbach. Auerbach built, stayed, and held his team intact during his tenure. Jackson had to manage egos better I think but he also had the master tactician of the trianlge offense in Tex Winters, so I do think some of his accolades deserve to go to Winters. Check out my blog "Everyday NBA" http://everydaynba.blogspot.com/

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I've been a big fan of Phil Jackson since he admitted to dropping acid back in the day.

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The writer states that Jackson's most recent title with the Lakers was won with only one great player, that being Kobe. That may be true but I would say that Gasol and Odom are as good a supporting tandom, if not better, than Pippen and Horace Grant or Pippen and Rodman. I'm not one to take anything away from Jackson but to suggest that the current Lakers are less talanted than other teams he has coached is simply inaccurate. The difference this past year was Kobe's desire, intensity and willingness to be a team player. Whatever role Jackson played in that is the real stroke of coaching genius.

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the whole notion of a 'greatest ever' for anything is ridiculous in and of itself. there is NO way to effectively compare ANY coach or ANY player in ANY sport since the situations for ANY/ALL of them are different and therefore the challenges are different. Here are just a couple examples in the Red/PJ idiocy:
1. did Red have to coach in an era where superstars wield more power than the coach? NOPE...in Red's era HE was God therefore the players played according to Red's will. Anyone who didn't like it was gone. In addition, the glorification of superstardom hadn't reached such ludicrous heights to where the superstar themselves often thought they were the team...red's era had more "team" orientation in general, hence a more cohesive chemistry and focus just by the accident of the times.
2. Did Red have the luxury of some of the talent PJ had? NOPE....he did have talented players and many of them but not the calibre that PJ had. and while some could say with some legitimacy that it was PJ's presence that contributed to their greatness, and they wouldn't be wrong, stil the seeds were there.

Now...throw in the differenc in levels of competition, the varying levels of training and what is/isn't availabe now or then, the schedules, the distractions, the different levels of opponents and opponent coaches...and you come up with such a huge amount of varying condition that NO mathematician worth his salt would attempt to logically compare anything in sports...

so, for my money BOTH did a great job with what they faced and what they had...and that's all I can say...
2.

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Times have changed, for better and worse, and it is not always easy to guess which is which. When Arnold coached, comic books were 10 cents, now they are $3. Salaries have not kept pace. Really earnings are down for most folks. But in the Nba, a guy who might have gotten $30 thousand now might get $30. Plus endorsements! Endersements used to be local. Now they are international. Talent hasn`t improved as much as Nba salries have, if at all, but size has certainly increased. With the no offensive goal teanding rule in `58, and 3 widenings off the three second area, all aim at protecting Arnold`s Celtics, and the rest of the Nba, from Wilt Chambelain, generally, tall centers have replaced small point guards in starting line ups, upping field goal percentage, and upping no calls of traveling violations. Slows the game to try to enforce the rules. And with bigger bodies inside, leading with the free arm is seen as a necessity, even though it is still against the rules. But the general society works that way, too. When Arnie coached, adultery was 10%, it is now 70%. The disrepect for husbands and wives parallels the disrespect for coaches. Of course, not all coaches deserve respect. Shave to look like a woman, but get military haircut to look like a man, or you are OFF the team! What does a beard have to do with basketball? Does it cause osteoporosis to have a beard? (Heated debate on whether vaccines are the root of all evil, or all good, on one of the other articles) Bottom line, is athletes win/lose games, so Arnie watched Russ grow a beard, and said, "great rebound/pass, great blocked shot, keep at `em!" not "it`s my way or the highway". Guys wanna coach fashion, they can wear a dress and coach the fashion industry, where a size 4 is fat. Pau Gasol is a much needed second all star for Bryant, and was before he got Laker fan votes, when he had to carry Memphis to the playoffs. The much vaunted triangle offense is the old, clear out a side each, for Jordan/Pippen or Bryant/O`Neal, or now Gasol/Bryant. Really sophisticated? Few assists, just get the ball to the scorers, stay (the cuss word) out of their way, drop back on defense. Defense wins games. But defense is "Get your body in front of your opponents, don`t let them get the ball, or they`ll jump over you , sight the basket, and score". Takes a lot of coaching to figure that one out, doesn`t it? The secret to Arnie`s coaching success? Draft Tom Heinsohn and trade for Bill Russell. He had no championships before Heinie and Russ, and none after Heinie retired, either, Russ coached the other two of his championships after Heinsohn retired. Jackson hasn`t been an executive, so Arnie certainly beats Phil there. But does anyone honestly believe it was Jerry Krause not Mike Jordan who lead the Bulls? Or Mitch Kupchak not Kobe Bryant who leads the Lakers? Main secret to being a good coach is to keep yourself focused on letting the athletes try to beat the other team, not you and/or the refs and/or each other.

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I do believe that Phil Jackson is the greatest coach to ever coach the game. This is no shot at Red Auerbach, who shouldn't be ashamed to be behind this man. Red Auerbach was always one to take away from Phil Jacksons accomplishments unfortunately. The NBA back then was much more rigid with its players. You played with a team until they didn't want you anymore. Red was lucky to have good and great players fall to him, who wanted to win and put winning before themselves. Phil Jackson had to deal with 3 huge ego's coaching. Don't take away from ego's dominating a season. Look at Iverson, look at Marbury. These two aren't on the level Michael Jordan, Shaq or Kobe are. I don't know how he did it, he shaped Michael into a dominating player who realized he had a team too. He molded Kobe into the perfect compliment to Shaq during their run, then made him a superstar. Coaches have been given good teams before, and have failed. Phil Jackson utilizes everything given to him, and does what few coaches can do. Win a championship.

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One of Phil`s rules is try not to call too many time outs. If your guys aren`t working hard and their guys are, you give their guys free rest as a reward. And on the sideline, you change the focus from winning to shooting your mouth off. If they want to win, let `em play, and encourage `em to play well. If they don`t want to win, why`d they try out for pee wee basketball and/or high school basketball, much less get recruited to the Nba? On team defense, show aggressively, if you double, do it aggressively, because you are leaving your own guy open, gambling. Make the gamble pay off, or get back to your own opponent. If you or teammates get bullied, stand up for yourself/them, non violently if at all reasonbly possible, within the rules if possible, stay in the game if you can, can`t win on the sidelines, but defend yourself/teammates however necessary. Don`t just fit in, stand out, encourage your teammates don`t just fit in, stand out, WITH your teammates, not against them. "Stars" LOSE games, don`t play star, win; winning makes REAL stars. Don`t tell me you can play, show me. The Ws and Ls, for coaches, and for athletes, speak for themselves. The only four over .600 are Rick Adelman, 61.0, which has changed since my stats; Riley, who kisses guys like Alonzo Mourning on tv, but won 66.1%; Auerbach who won 66.2% of his games; and Jackson, who won 71.3% of his games, those stats have also changed since for Jackson, but are #1. Not bad.

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Auerbach coached when there were fewer teams in the league, fewer games in the playoffs. Which is to say, his odds were shorter each season than Jackson's.

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I'm sorry for putting politics in sports, but look at bush running America....America being the players and Bush being the coach....you need a good coach to win and if your suggesting that we are going to be judging by how many years it took to reach 10 then you guys are either haters of the lakers or just haters because you could never get to do that.

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