Life Without Jordan Might Not Suit Jackson

In “Life on the Run,� his 1976 book about a season with the New York Knicks, Bill Bradley recounted a conversation with teammate Phil Jackson regarding his upbringing by parents who were Pentecostal ministers.

“Every Sunday since I was born, the apocalypse has been coming next year,� Jackson said.

Could it be that Jackson, who on Wednesday became the Lakers’ seventh coach of the ‘90s, is about to discover that next year is here?

It is, of course, an exaggeration to compare an NBA season to the apocalypse, although the most recent one here was close, but it is safe to assume that Jackson is in for a revelation. Instead of finding a Laker team that is similar to the one he had in Chicago, he is more likely to find out how different they are.

Perhaps he should have meditated longer before agreeing with the Lakers that he is the right man for the job.

Once they thought about it, Jerry Buss and Jerry West, who are not to be confused with Chicago’s Jerrys (Reinsdorf and Krause), decided Jackson was the obvious choice.

His six championship rings as coach of the Bulls guarantee that he will command something from the players Del Harris and Kurt Rambis did not--their attention.

Once he has that, he will demand that defense and teamwork, two aspects of their games that have been missing in recent seasons, are in attendance at the Staples Center at least as frequently as Jack Nicholson.

And, as the coach who convinced Michael Jordan that sharing the ball was good not only for the Bulls but Michael Jordan, he has a chance to get through to Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Less obvious are the reasons Jackson wanted the Lakers.

He didn’t have to coach anywhere.

As his agent, Todd Musburger, said Wednesday, “Phil could have continued to work on Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign, taught at a university, written or stayed home in Montana and become a trout fisherman for the rest of his life.�

None of those, however, offer the salary that Buss did.

“Without this tremendous contract, I don’t think he’d be here,� West said during Wednesday’s news conference at the Beverly Hilton to introduce Jackson to the L.A. media.

Los Angeles also was a selling point. For all of his North Dakota roots, his Montana home and his Alaska vacations, Jackson has spent most of his professional careers in an urban environment. He spent 15 years in New York, 10 in Chicago and said Wednesday that he’s looking forward to experiencing “the other big city in America.�

The most significant factor, though, is that Jackson is a career basketball man. He walked into a gym four decades ago in Williston, N.D., and has never really left. Having accepted coaching jobs previously in Puerto Rico and Albany, N.Y., he wasn’t going to turn down the Lakers, not these Lakers.

“They are talented, young and on the verge,� he said. “They’ve been on the verge for the last couple of years, not unlike the situation we had in Chicago.�

There is one difference, however, that should not be underestimated.

The Bulls had Jordan.

The Lakers do not.

In Jordan, Jackson had one player who believed he was the best to ever play the game. Fortunately for the Bulls, Jordan was right.

In O’Neal and Bryant, Jackson now has two players who believe they are the best ever to play the game. Unfortunately for the Lakers, neither is right.

Jordan, correctly, credits Jackson for his development as a team player, leading him to the awareness that he often could achieve more by doing less.

But even though neither won an NBA championship without the other, Jackson was more reliant on Jordan for his six rings than vice versa--just as Pat Riley needed Magic Johnson with the Lakers more than Johnson needed him for the four rings they won together in the ‘80s.

Eleven seasons and two franchises since the last one, Riley is still trying to win another. It is hardly a coincidence that only one coach in NBA history, Alex Hannum, with the St. Louis Hawks in 1958 and the Philadelphia 76ers in ‘67, has won championships with more than one team. Success in the NBA, or lack of it, is ultimately dictated by players, not coaches.

Jackson has identified the problems. Of O’Neal, he said that he “underplayed the last couple of seasons� and “should be better.� Of Bryant, he said that he has “Michael Jordanesque-type ability� but is “uneducated in basketball and life.� Whether Jackson can solve them remains to be seen.

I do, however, agree with Buss and West that Jackson was the best choice available. If he can’t coach these Lakers, nobody can.

That, alas, might be the answer. Nobody can.

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].