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This Day In Sports…June 17, 2010, 15 years ago today:
For the fifth time in their storied histories, the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers go to Game 7 against each other in the NBA Finals. And the Lakers came from behind to win it, 83-79, repeating as champions and claiming their 17th NBA crown, one short of the Celtics’ record. For two-time Finals MVP Kobe Bryant, it was his sixth title. And it was the 11th in the storied career of Lakers coach Phil Jackson, the most in NBA history.
Jackson is actually a 13-time NBA champion, having won two as a player with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973. After his playing days ended in 1980, the move to NBA coaching was not exactly overnight. Jackson did initially assist with the New Jersey Nets, but he spent five years in both the Continental Basketball Association and in Puerto Rico. Jackson finally got his real NBA break in 1987, when he was hired by Chicago Bulls coach Doug Collins. Jackson became head coach when Collins was fired in 1989, and he plugged his famous “triangle offense” into a group featuring one of the greatest players of all-time, Michael Jordan.
The Bulls’ pair of three-peat titles during the 1990s are well-chronicled. But Jackson was burned out after the last of the six championships and claimed he would never coach again. That lasted one year, and Jackson took over the Lakers in 1999. L.A. won the title in his first season there, and lo and behold, he had another three-peat by 2003.
But after the 2003-04 season ended, Jackson had grown tired of trying to manage the individuality of Bryant and his ongoing feud with fellow star Shaquille O’Neal and let his contract lapse. The Lakers, with O’Neal having been traded to Miami and Jackson stepping down, floundered without them—and Jackson was rehired for the 2005-06 campaign. His relationship with Bryant was not only repaired, but it flourished, and Jackson’s final two titles came with Kobe as his star.
Jackson has long had an affinity for Montana, having been born in Deer Lodge. But he had a strict religious upbringing, and basketball was one of the only outside activities he was allowed to do. Jackson spent his college hoops career at the University of North Dakota from 1964-67 and was made the 17th overall pick by the Knicks in the NBA Draft. Throughout his coaching career, he had a zen for Zen, an alternative to his childhood teachings. Now 79, he has come full-circle and lives on Flathead Lake in Montana.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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