You've Lost That Loving Philling

Jackson leaning toward retirement
SI.com

EL SEGUNDO, California (AP) -- Phil Jackson thinks he is just about ready to walk away from his unparalleled NBA 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 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 claim their second straight title, and Jackson sounds increasingly interested in 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. Yet Jackson mostly has kept the Lakers in the dark about his plans, with even general manager Mitch Kupchak saying he had "no idea" what Jackson's future holds.

"We all want him back," Bryant said Wednesday. "He knows that. I've stressed it to him over and over. ... I don't even want to think about that right now. It's killing my buzz."

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.

Well, Kobe certainly said it best about the prospect of losing Phil Jackson - "it's killing my buzz." And for a man that just won an NBA title (Kobe) and for a man than ingests more Coors Light than a Golden, Colo. parking lot (me) its pretty hard to kill the buzz. Sure, sometimes Phil's method looks like madness but without him I'm pretty sure this team would have massacered each other. It would have been like Lord of the Flies without Phil running the show. So I think Jeannie Buss needs to get on her knees and get a little work done. We count afford to lose the big man.

Also, who did Jeff Van Gundy blow to get his name added to that story. Just because he and Mark Jackson spend most broadcats polishing Kobe knob doesn't make him a candidate. If anything we'll bring Pat Riley back before Van Gundy. Mama, there goes that man!

P.S. - Let's just hope Luke Walton is right.

Walton: Jackson is 'coming back'
Los Angeles Times

If hope were truth, Phil Jackson would be a lock. Look at it this way. An amateur chef can screw up the meal even with the best ingredients in the world. The Lakers have experienced the world without Jackson and the taste was decidedly sour. "We have all the talent in the world and this team needs a coach that can manage that talent, put it together and make everybody work together," said Lakers forward Luke Walton. "And Phil, he's the best in the world at doing that."

That decision could come in the next week or so after Jackson has his usual medical checkup and tests and a few seconds to reflect about going forward for a three-peat. Walton was asked if he had a gut feeling on the possibility of Jackson's returning. The answer came with his big smile before he responded with three words: "He's coming back."

Throw it down, big fella!