Phil Jackson may be the single-most decorated head coach in the history of the NBA now, with 11 championships claimed between his tenures with the Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen-era Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. He also boasts the most postseason victories ever, with 229, and the most conference titles, with 13.
But his future trajectory wasn’t always quite so obvious.
Known as a gritty reserve big on a pair of championship New York Knicks squads during his playing days, Jackson kicked off his career as a coach rather unceremoniously, serving as the head coach for the Continental Basketball Association’s Albany Patroons.
He quickly led the club to an inaugural franchise title in 1984, and earned CBA Coach of the Year honors the next season. He also coached for the Piratas de Quebradillas and Gallitos de Isabela squads in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, a Puerto Rican league.
Jackson’s reputation as a hippy preceded him, and he had trouble breaking into the NBA throughout the ’80s.
But Bulls team president Jerry Krause saw something in Jackson’s ability to relate to players, and eventually brought him aboard to work under Doug Collins as an assistant coach (Krause also tried to get Jackson hired under Collins’ predecessor, Stan Albeck, to no avail).
Another Chicago legend, 2012 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Award-winning Bulls beat reporter Sam Smith, asserts to Bleacher Nation that he, too, saw something special in Jackson from the jump.
“In retrospect, knowing what occurred, it’s easy to say, ‘I knew it, I saw it.’ But I did see it! I really did. Or I felt that. You can’t ever project someone’s going to [win] 11 rings,” Smith concedes. “Back then, he was traveling commercial. No connection, but the coaches traveled coach, where I was — in the back of the plane… I always used to grab a seat or arrange to get a seat next to Phil, Tex [Winter] or Johnny Bach. That was sort of like my basketball Master’s Degree or PhD, sitting next to those guys on every flight.”
During this Bulls era, superstar Michael Jordan was hitting a glass ceiling of his own. The eventual five-time league MVP shooting guard was struggling to advance deep into the playoffs, and growing frustrated with the longer-term youth movement Krause seemed to be prioritizing.
Eventually, of course, Collins guided Chicago to the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals, where they were once again flattened by the buzzsaw that was the Detroit Pistons for the second straight season.
But Jackson, looking for more security, almost strayed.
Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY NETWORKPhil Jackson Almost Ditched the Bulls During the Doug Collins Era
Smith was actually advocating for Jackson to make the move!
“I’d gotten to know the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks [Herb Kohl], who was a four-term US senator,” Smith reveals. “And so actually I was telling him, ‘You need to hire this guy. This guy’s really good, he knows basketball.’ And so Phil went up and interviewed with Milwaukee. He doesn’t see himself staying with the Bulls. Bulls are starting to make a move, Doug Collins is popular. Actually, despite what people might have thought, Michael and Doug were close, they liked each other. Nobody saw, really, this path [for Phil]. But Herb wanted a veteran coach, so he goes with Del Harris.
“And then, Phil had been friendly with the son of the owner of the Timberwolves… he went up to Minneapolis and was offered the job… When he came back to Chicago and had the offer to go to Minnesota, Jerry Krause urged him, he said, ‘Do not take that job. That’s a dead-end job. You’ll have one job and you’ll be out of the NBA. You will never coach again if you coach that job.’ Bill Musselman took that job, he was a CBA coach. Basically ended his coaching career. So Phil came back, not with the idea of undermining Doug or anything… And then things started coming apart.”
Tensions boiled over during that fateful 1988-89 season, which wound up being Collins’ last. The club went 47-35, while rising young forwards Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant began to develop as defensive stalwarts.
Collins wound up clashing with both Krause and seasoned assistant coach Tex Winter, who had long been advocating that the team implement his triple-post offense.
“Doug was very young and emotional, got into disputes with Krause and Tex Winter. Things I had written about back then, barred Tex from practice. Stuff that really, Jerry got angry about. And all of a sudden Phil’s in place when they decided they’re going to replace Doug, and so fell into the job. He was not a popular choice at the time,” Smith acknowledges. “I remember Michael coming to me — before I’d written books about him, we had a good relationship — and I asked him about the triangle, Phil wants to insert this offense. Michael was very dismissive of it. He said, ‘That’s a college offense. They need my scoring. I can’t be standing around, throwing the ball to Bill Cartwright!'”
Jordan, of course, came around pretty quickly. The Bulls did take one more game off the Pistons in the subsequent season, 1989-90 — the club’s first under Jackson — but ultimately fell in seven Eastern Conference Finals contests to the eventual champs. A Scottie Pippen migraine in Game 7 may have made the difference.
Chicago did go on to break through the next season, winning its first of three straight league championships with a core of Jordan, Pippen and Grant.
After a baseball sabbatical and a complete roster retool around Jordan and Pippen, the Jackson-coached club went on to rip off another three titles in a row, from 1996-98.
“[Eventually] Michael saw what I saw, too. Michael saw that this guy really knows the game and he knows people,” Smith notes. “And Phil’s ability to deal with people, really, was his strength.”
Hardly satisfied with resting on their NBA laurels, Jackson and Smith have cowritten a terrific, fresh hoops tome: Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players. They cover the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team through a unique, tangent-heavy approach designed to feel more like a lively conversation than a strict analysis.
Between Smith and Jackson, they have seen, played or coached against almost everyone covered in Masters of the Game — outside of George Mikan. So who better than these two Hall of Famers to riff on all these NBA greats, including Jordan and Pippen?
Bleacher Nation‘s extensive conversation with Smith explained what prompted Masters of the Game and also tackled his must-read New York Times bestseller on Chicago’s first championship season, The Jordan Rules.
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