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What else would you expect?
You smack the Lakers around they get cheap.
Fing ankle injuries and western finals schedule
Dubious Reed: Jackson questions Pierce’s injury
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
BOSTON – Having gone from Brian Scalabrine’s arms to wheelchair to scorer’s table to NBA legend in about, oh, seven minutes, Paul Pierce’s miraculous recovery continued another day. He complained his right knee was stiff and sore, said he likely wouldn’t have been able to play Friday and then, when asked to assess his chances of starting Sunday’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics star forward didn’t hesitate with his answer.
“I think there’s a great chance I’ll play,” he said.
Some 12 hours earlier Pierce also claimed to have been touched by an angel, and that was the first sign something might be amiss.
After all, does anyone believe Michael Landon was really a Celtics fan?
More than a couple of the Los Angeles Lakers have rolled their eyes over Pierce’s dramatic performance in the Finals’ opening game, no one more than their coach. Asked about Pierce’s “Willis Reed moment,” Phil Jackson smiled.
“Well, if I’m not mistaken, I think Willis Reed missed a whole half and three quarters almost of a game and literally had to have a shot – a horse shot – three or four of them in his thigh to come back out and play,” Jackson said. “Paul got carried off and was back on his feet in a minute. I don’t know if the angels visited him at halftime or in the timeout period that he had or not, but he didn’t even limp when he came back out on the floor.
“Was Oral Roberts back there in their locker room?”
This was Jackson at his best, and Pierce can take credit for that, too. Not only did he will the Celtics to their impressive Game 1 victory, he transformed Phil Jackson back into his cynical, sarcastic, cutting self.
“That,” said of one of Jackson’s former players, “was the Phil Jackson we’ve been waiting to see.”
Until Thursday, Jackson had kept his barbs to himself throughout these playoffs. Lakers officials said they’ve never seen him so relaxed. Perhaps that’s because these young Lakers have already exceeded his expectations. Or maybe, as some have speculated, he never really viewed the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz or San Antonio Spurs as true threats.
These Celtics, however, are exactly that.
Jackson is famed for biting into an opposing coach or player. He angered the Spurs by attaching an asterisk to their lockout-season championship then later derisively labeled San Antonio a “tourist trap.” He called Sacramento a “cow town” and even alternately spliced photos of Hitler with game film of the Kings then-coach, Rick Adelman. Gregg Popovich got off easy. Jackson used to privately refer to him and his Spurs coaching staff as the “Simulator Crew.”
Jackson has also tweaked Mike D’Antoni, complained about which side of the court the Jazz warmed up on and once told Tim Duncan to stop whining to the officials. Jackson’s players, particularly the veterans, have typically delighted in the antics. He makes the grind of the regular season entertaining and lightens the too-tense tenor of the playoffs.
Still, Jackson had been uncharacteristically mild this spring, even offering only praise for Red Auerbach, Boston’s late patriarch and his longtime rival. So perhaps it’s not a coincidence that he sharpened his teeth at exactly the same time the Lakers fell into their first deficit of these playoffs. Zinging Pierce sure beats discussing whether Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher didn’t share the ball enough.
In truth, any insinuation that Pierce staged his return is just as comical. Pierce didn’t fake his injury any more than Bryant faked the back spasms that slowed him for an afternoon in Utah. When Bryant recovered well enough the following game to total 26 points, seven assists and six rebounds and beat the Jazz, he, too, heard skeptics debate whether he had really been injured.
Privately, some Celtics have suggested Pierce was probably more scared than hurt, and that’s understandable. He heard his knee “pop,” and as any athlete knows that’s not a good sound. “Once I felt a sharp pain … I didn’t know what to think,” Pierce said. “The worst came to mind.”
The worst, of course, never arrived. Once in the locker room Pierce found he could put his weight on the leg without much trouble. Getting carried off the court, he admitted, “was sort of embarrassing.” The Celtics also haven’t even deemed it necessary to further evaluate the injury with an MRI.
“At this point, with two weeks left, six games to go, we can figure this out at the end of the season,” Pierce said.
On Friday that only fueled West Coast skepticism that he couldn’t be in too much pain.
“Aren’t we skeptics anyway now about everything?” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “So, what the heck? Let it begin. Let it begin. Lee Harvey Oswald did it.”
Lee Harvey. Oral Roberts. Michael Landon. All the Celtics need to know is this: If Phil Jackson is taking aim at them, if Pierce has awakened the cynic in the old Lakers coach, they must be doing something right.
What else would you expect?
You smack the Lakers around they get cheap.
Fing ankle injuries and western finals schedule
Jackson is a great coach but an ASSCLOWN
yo T park, the last time any NBA schedule had 7 games every other night was back in the ABA
tells you something about the agenda at hand.
Phil going to question another players' injury when he has KOBE on his team?
Beat me too it. The guy has the penultimate drama queen playing for him and he's whining about Pierce? Lame.Phil going to question another players' injury when he has KOBE on his team?
Pierce was rolling on the ground and had to be carrie off by four teammates. A few minutes later he was jumping up and down. Way to dramatic, I guess I'm in the minority rooting for the Lakers.
Nah, I hate the Celtics. But the fact is there is no more classless guy in the league than Phil Jackson.
Sounds like the wrong coach is nicknamed "Doc".
I think it's hilarious. Not to say that it isn't classless or rude, but still, he's funny and probably effective in terms of getting into peoples' heads.
i cant stand either the lakers or celtics...but for whatever reason...(just dont feel like typing them again) pop woulda got outcoached again....oh well....go spurs go
Reminded me of Soccer guy that falls to the ground as if a grenade exploded and then rolls on the field, is carried unconsiously off the field by medics and then seconds later is up and sprinting down the field.
Wow, I hope this isn't what is coming now, diving and fake injuries. That being said, I hate Boston and everything from there with a passion, but Phil Jackson and Kobe really have swayed me to make an exception. Someone said it right earlier, Phil Jackson is a great coach, i'll give him that, but he's an ASSCLOWN>
Once again, Phillatio proves what a complete he is.
Get this series over quick, Boston.
I'm tired of seeing all these mouth breathing front running asshats out here wearing their Lamer gear and flying their goddamn car flags.
im with ya... both teams but pierce more! that was pussy . pierce is a drama queen from .
For God's sake look up the word penultimate.
LMAO Phil is the man. Arguably the best coach of all time that was hilarious, I'm glad we don't have a boring coach but a real coach here in LA.
i don't know who is a worse Drama Queen Kobe or wade, anybody remember when Wade had to be wheelchaired off of the court for an arm injury?
I know right! Everybody else just has fake coaches. Those others aren't real, they are just plastic
There's no bigger horse's ass in all of sports than Phil Jackson. You couldn't find a more flagrantly disrespectful, classless individual.
Phil Jackson is way too arrogant for his own good. I think as good of a coach as he is, he shouldn't be so petty after a loss. Notice almost all of his petty comments and jabs come after a loss.
I was watching the last 1:30 of Game 1 while on the phone so I wasn't completely paying attention, but did it seem like Phil screwed up by not fouling to stop the clock and give his team a chance? It seemed like he didn't care. It seemed like bad coaching to me. I suppose it was the ZEN thing to do nothing.
Does anyone else in the league like this guy at all? He throws everyone under the bus. His players are snickering now, until he takes a jab at them through the press when things don't go his way. In fact, using the press seems to be one of his chief coaching strategies. Pop is awkward in how deals with the press but I much prefer it to Phil's cheap approach.
1.) Bill Belichick is a much bigger prick than Phil.
2.) While Phil can be a prick, most of his talking is straight mind games.
haha i had a feeling he wasnt as hurt as he reacted.
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