Phil Jackson was brought in by the Pistons to help consult during their coaching search, but apparently he can't let his Piston-inflicted wounds heal.
Jackson has 11 championship rings as a coach but suffered arguably the most embarrassing loss of his coaching career at the hands of the 2004 Pistons, who defeated the star-studded Lakers in five games.
Doing a radio interview with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo on Thursday, Jackson was asked how Shaquille O'Neal would fare if he were placed in Wilt Chamberlain's era.
Jackson proceeded to seemingly take a shot at the Pistons and former coach Larry Brown, insinuating the Pistons flopped against O'Neal during that series and that it led to the Lakers' demise.
"Larry Brown taught guys to go down (flop) on Shaq and that's one of the reasons they won in '04," Jackson said. "He had the center, (Ben) Wallace as the David in that matchup and those (plays) were called as charges."
"Shaq would put a shoulder into you and test how close he could get to the basket," said Jackson, who's on a tour promoting his book "Eleven Rings."
Surprised Phil didn't blame the actual culprit (Kobe) here.
Dont see why people getting bent over PJ's comments. This we know about PJ:
GOAT coach ...
huge ego to match because of it ...
He's an asshole ...
he plays the media ...
He loves attention ...
And he is selling books ...
WGAF what he says?! you just selling more books for him....I will read it, but I take all books of this ilk with a grain of salt especially from cats with big egos.
CROFL at GOAT coach
Phil GOAT at ego management tbh
He knew that both Shaq and Kobe had egos bigger than riot rates in LA, so he always criticized Shaq in front of the team as Shaq would only play even better than before, but he'll never criticize Kobe in front of the team or else Kobe won't take more than 1 shot in the first half.
Refs weren't up your ass and you lost.
End story.
This
But Phil shouldnt take all the credit for ego mangement though
The players loved Tex Winter, and when Brian Shaw was playing he was the one told Shaq and Kobe to STFU and help the team win games in 2000-2001
I didnt think he was ... not until 2010 was I convinced that team had no business reopeating but he played the media, refs and manipulated his team to squeeze out 11 ...
he is a great coach a front-runner sure but a great coach he even won in the CBA sure doesnt mean much but he won everywhere he coached ...
Every team he has coached has been stacked with one or two hall of famers. The fact he won't coach a lesser team shows how overrated he is. He will only coach where he knows he will win. Great coaches get the most out of lesser players.
That's not coaching, that's just taking advantage of being Stern's biggest handout squad....
Its not even debatable
Like Chuck said, a great coach gets the most out of his role players, he makes the guys on the bench contributors. Phil couldn't even get Gary Payton and Karl Malone to contribute, and needed a star studded roster all the time. He never developed anyone, and no one from his teams ever went on to do anything with any other team except Robert Horry. Derrick Fisher is seen as a middle of the road PG even with 5 rings because Phil focused all of his lazy energy on the stars, and they are pretty much self motivated.
Great coach? no. Great nanny? Perhaps.
I would blame a lot on the FOs he coached for..they sure didn't find many Tony/Manuesque late draft pick impact players..
GOAT coach at ego management? rofl kobe has the worst ego in the NBA and spent a majority of his career with phil. didn't kobe ego emerge in the 04 finals? didn't kobe's ego run shaq out of town? didnt kobe's ego cause him to quit against phoenix? all under PJ's watch... get over yourselves. he coaches superstar-laden teams
This guy reigned in and got significant contributions from Artest, Bison Dele and Rodman when they were in cuckoo mode.
He forced Shaq to focus his talent and got the best season and Playoff runs out of him.
He managed the considerable egos of Mj, Pippen, Kobe and shaq and did so with 2 huge stars on the same team.
He coached three 3 peats ... and back 2 back.
He made Horry, Kerr, Fisher, Paxson some of the biggest contributors to NBA les yet only Horry was even CLOSE to being a high level starter.
Phil is a great coach ..period. He also has dominated head2head vs. Riles and Pop who are #2 and #3 on my list ...
Pistons did flop alot on Shaq, and was definitely a big reason why the Pistons won. Shaq was never able to dominate the series like he should've been able to. I don't see how anyone can argue that the Pistons didn't flop.
That Lakers team would've probably won more times than not than the Pistons despite getting outplayed (largly because of the bad calls on Shaq). Malone also playing injured killed the Lakers. That wasn't a very deep squad to begin with, and Gary Payton never really fit in as seemlessly as Malone did. Problem with Payton was he couldn't spread the floor for Kobe or Shaq, and that Lakers team had no real 3 point shooting.
The other reason they won is that they were better.
As great a coach as he is Phil's Ego is just disgusting..
at least they won a game in 04 which must have saved some face, which was not nearly as embarrassing as getting the swept out of them tbh
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