SO I went to the bookstore and noticed that in the bargain section was Phil Jackson's "The Last Season". An ironic title seeing as how he came back to coaching the Lakers a year after he wrote this book.
I had heard that there was a lot of gossip and kobe trashing in this book, and it was in fact the case. I ripped through the book 250 so pages in about 2 hours. It was pretty interesting, but to be honest when there was no drama going on, I was kind of bored.
The book recounts the 2004-05 season which ended in a loss to the Pistons in the finals. The most interesting incidents to me all involved either Kobe and Phil or Kobe and Shaq. I am amazed that Kobe and Phil can even be in the same room together, much less work together after this book was published. From the numerous times that Kobe is ripped for being selfish, narcissistic to Phil saying he wasn't too suprised about Kobe's rape arrest early in the book. Phil and his ghost writer do not pick bones or mince words.
There was some interesting analysis of film study and the preparation that goes into the gind of an 82 game season and the playoffs. But mostly it just help reaffrim my ideas that Jackson's style of coaching is to not coach. He relies on players to figure it out themselves or become self motivationg, while doing all of his weird woo-woo crap. I am not a Jackson fan and I think that it will be a shame if he ever passes Red Auerbach on the all time championships list, as Jackson is not fit to breathe the same air as Red as a coach. Furthermore, I think that jackson is kind of a scumbag for writing this book, then returning to the Lakers. It seems that his inability to deal with Bryant any longer, could be fixed by giving him more money. What a tool.
It's also interesting that he mentions how bonded and close he felt to Shaq, yet this season he has been critical of the Diesel incurring Shaq's Benedict Arnold comments.
Overall the things I learned from this book, are that both kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson are pieces of shit and they deserve each other. And to rot in the cellar of the Western conference for the rest of both of their careers.
S
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Creating drama makes money and creates interest in others. That's in anything regardless if you're a man or woman. The seduction community is a prime example of that one. There's more drama between companies then there are in their own love lives. Bob Knight and his television show is another example of sports going dramatic.
I liked the book and how it brought you behind the curtain of the NBA. I did think there was too much trash talking though. He tries to downplay Kobe's performances even though the guy was right most of the time. He'd go out there and stop people like he said he was going to do. I also think that losing that championship that year was not only because of drama but also management decisions and just plain dumb luck. Nobody knew that everybody at some point except Gary Payton was going to get hurt. That guy turned into a liability on defense as well. In the finals years later, Jason Terry was going by him at will. The Lakers acquired him because of his defense!
In terms of his coaching abilities, you can't say he's not good. He did collaborate with his staff to invent offensive schemes that prove effective with the right personnel. They work and can be extremely complicated as the book pointed out. He doesn't control teams and at level you really can't. You only have twenty four seconds on offense to do something with the ball. You have to give your players who happen to be the best in the world the flexibility to make their own decisions and not worry about the play. Those guys egos are also gigantic and would probably be a bitch to deal with. I do agree though that Red was an amazing coach but he did have personnel to back it up.
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