Zen and the Art of Winning NBA ChampionshipsWho has the better life philosophy, Phil Jackson or Stan Van Gundy?

Jackson looks like a genius when things are going right for the Lakers, but as fallible as the next coach, or maybe more so, when they aren't. Consider their 2008 season. At its start Phil had Kobe, a very disaffected prima donna who was threatening to jump ship, and supporting cast of talented kids and uninspired journeymen. It was very like the Bulls when the had Michael Jordan but hadn't yet acquired Scotty Pippen: a Lakers game was like a freak show--in almost every game Kobe was running up huge scores, but the Lakers were managing to lose anyway, and it scarcely looked like they'd make the cut for the playoffs, let alone get into the finals. And then two things happened, at least one of which was something beyond Phil's control. First, Derek Fisher was given permission by the league to move to LA because his daughter needed special health care she couldn't get in Salt Lake. Fisher is a bit over the hill but his great contribution to the team was his emotional stability and the kind of leadership a player can exert only when he already amassed a collection of championship rings. As soon as he came the team's chemistry underwent a dramatic change for the better (as did Kobe's personal attitude). Then the Lakers had another stroke of luck: Andrew Bynum got injured and Pau Gasol was acquired from Memphis, evidently for next to nothing. This was at least primarily Mitch Kupchak's doing, whether Phil had any input at all is maybe unclear. And in Pau the Lakers finally had their equivalent of Pippen. The team only started jelling in about March, and maybe the process hadn't been completed by the time they finally came up against Boston, it's a wonder they got there at all. And some other good things have happened in the 2009 season: Odom has settled down and is a lot less erratic, Arize has come on like gangbusters, and Farmar did too in the regular season, although he's not a factor in the playoffs. How much credit for this belongs to Phil, and how much to the rest of the coaching staff, is not clear. But the point is that now Phil is in the catbird seat with a very, very good team, and is all but assured of another championship, and once again people are hailing him as a genius. But Lady Luck had a lot to do with it. Believe me, until about February or March of the 2008 season people in LA were saying very different things about him.

-- DFS
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