What's the head to head record between them in the playoffs again?
It really does depend on the team that is being coached, but head to head, all things equal, after last year, it is clear, at least to me, that P-Jax is the better coach, because he isn't just a closer, he is also a damn good builder when push comes to shove, and NOBODY is a better motivator or game tactician.
4-1 Jackson....
But the coaches don't play.... the players do... and the '00-'02 Lakers were complete and dominant.
3-1 Jackson....
Playoff Games:
14-7 Jackson....
The Lakers won most of their games in the second half. That means adjustments, not talent.
There isn't a single quality about PJax I would take over Pop.
Except this: if I needed one coach to win one series.
Phil Jackson is a great, great coach. The best I've ever seen. As whottt has explained in this thread and in the past, Jackson turns his teams into machines that have no fear. He also figures out the weak links on the other team and exposes them.
Pop is a Hall of Famer and a great coach. No sane person could say otherwise. But Jackson is a step above him. He's had great talent but he's turned that into rings.
Give Phil Jackson the Spurs team from last year and he beats the Dallas Mavericks 100 out of 100 times.
Or give him Shaq, Kobe, Malone and Payton and he will destroy all leauge sweeping everybody in the playoffs !!!!!!!!!
Phil Jackson is a great, great coach. The best I've ever seen. As whottt has explained in this thread and in the past, Jackson turns his teams into machines that have no fear. He also figures out the weak links on the other team and exposes them.
Pop is a Hall of Famer and a great coach. No sane person could say otherwise. But Jackson is a step above him. He's had great talent but he's turned that into rings.
Give Phil Jackson the Spurs team from last year and he beats the Dallas Mavericks 100 out of 100 times.
Remember all that crap that went on with the Lakers that year? Think anyone else would have gotten that dysfunctional crew to the NBA Finals?
I saw that team just absolutely kill the Spurs in every fourth quarter. Isn't that the series where they'd play straight defense until the fourth quarter and then double and triple team the out of Duncan? Genius. The Spurs were by far the more talented team and they just got out-zenned.
Pop got beat by the Jackson and Lakers two times in the playoffs because the guys who were supposed to hit the open outside shots couldn't do jack, nothing more, nothing less. If guys like Horry and Hedo didn't stink it up when they had open looks Phil would be short two of his rings.
Phil Jackson is a great, great coach. The best I've ever seen. As whottt has explained in this thread and in the past, Jackson turns his teams into machines that have no fear. He also figures out the weak links on the other team and exposes them.
Pop is a Hall of Famer and a great coach. No sane person could say otherwise. But Jackson is a step above him. He's had great talent but he's turned that into rings.
Give Phil Jackson the Spurs team from last year and he beats the Dallas Mavericks 100 out of 100 times.
Werd
One could say that Phil Jackson gets his players to reach their potential like no other coach in history...
MJ was not a winner(in the NBA) before Phil.
Scottie Pippen was not even a player.
Kobe and Shaq got swept before Phil.
DFish and Steve Kerr turned into heartbreakers.
He gets scrubs to believe in themselves better than any coach IMO.
One other common denominator in all of the Spurs les other than Tim Duncan and Gregg Poppovich?
All of them had a player that learned to win under Phil play a key role in them.
99 - Will Perdue
03 - Steve Kerr
05 - Robert Horry....Horry is really the only stretch there, since he was already Horry before Phil got hold of him...but it certainly didn't hurt Horry anyway, and I'd say he got even better at doing it under Phil.
Great Coach...Arrogant, a head, but Great Coach, his teams never beat themselves(well except for Kobe beating them in 04), or lack confidence, and IMO they usually overachieve, for the simple reason that Phil gets them to believe they are invincible.
He's also a near genius at isolating the choker and exploiting him(See, Turkoglu, Hedo in 04)
If Horry doesn't stink it up in 03, Pop is short one ring. If Rasheed hits a couple of jumpers in 99, he's short two rings.
You can play "if" all you want, but the only facts are the nine rings.
The point is everyone saying how brilliant Jackson is and how he kicked Pop's butt in coaching. What was Jackson's brilliant coaching manuever? Pack the lane, get physical with Parker and Duncan and take away the inside game, take his chances that the Spurs couldn't burn him from the outside. Brilliant move.
Yes it was, since Pop had no idea how to counter it.
Anybody who saw that series will tell you that there looked like no way the Lakers were winning after the first two games. Jackson decided where the weakness was, made the adjustment, and put his team at an advantage where previously there was none. That's what coaching is all about.
And "We didn't hit our shots" must be the lament of every fired coach in history.
I actually thought the Spurs were favoured because the Lakers underachieved throughout the season.
And then there was the finals, where Larry Brown played Phil Jackson like a piano. I can see why Phil Jackson hates the Brown/Pop alliance.
Phil Jackson, as good as he is, has peers. Riley, Larry Brown, and yes, even Pop, are the few coaches who are at least on the same level as Jackson, despite fewer rings.
A good argument would be a coach like Chuck Daly, who revolutionized the game, but won "only" two rings. Is he the same as Rudy Tomjonavich, who also won two rings? Not a chance! Anybody who ever watched the game would know that Rudy is a one trick pony (pretty good trick though), and Daly is far and away the much better coach.
Name me the team in recent NBA history that couldn't hit their outshide shots for jack throughout a series against another elite team and went on to win to championship. As I recall even the mighty Phil with MJ and Pippen relied on some timely shooting from guys like Kerr Armstrong, and Paxson or Fisher and Horry. Sometimes your players just don't come through and do even a slightly below average job for you.
Whatever, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Jackson made Pop look crazy in that series.
To be fair...it's really not Pop's fault that Hedo was a choking heartless ...
Difference between Pop and Phil? Phil saw Hedo for what he truly was...while Pop didn't. And Phil's guys never choke...either he knows how to get the choke out of them...or he is able to discern if they are chokers before letting them into the rotation. It's a talent. He didn't dare Stephen Jackson to beat him...
The good news in all of this?
Tony Parker is the only PG I have ever seen pull a double team out of Phil in the playoffs....this while he was being forced to double Duncan as well. Phil knows the chokers, he also knows the killers....that double team was the ultimate compliment from Phil Jackson to Tony Parker....and just think...Tony was only 21 then.
Point is the dumbest coach in the league could figure "Hey their killing me in the paint. I think I'll try packing the lane." So is Jackson a genius for doing what any goof would do. And how was Pop supposed to counter Hedo, Horry, Manu clanking all their shots? Sneak Ray Allen and Michal Redd into Spurs' jerseys and hope nobody noticed?
He was supposed to sigh Stephen Jackson and not trade for Hedo.
As I recall Jackson's impatience had something to do with the Spurs not being able to make him an offer.
And as I recall...having Hedo instead of Jackson had something to do with us losing...
I made my point...what's yours?
I think SJ wanted more than 10mil/3years, I think that's the supposed contract he turned down hoping for a better offer..
That Jackson was asking for a boatload of money. Spurs couldn't wait for him to realize that nobody was going to give him the boatload of money he wanted.
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