Mike Brown not aiming to be the new Phil Jackson – NBA Update
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike Brown has dismissed comparisons with former coach and basketball legend Phil Jackson. Brown believes it was pointless to try and be like Jackson, a man who is probably the best coach in basketball
history.
Instead, Brown aims to start a new legacy and create his own philosophy about basketball.
"Everybody hits me with, 'Man, are you worried about walking in? Especially with Phil (leaving)?'" Brown said according to ESPN. "Phil? I'm not trying to be Phil."
Mike has already made it clear that the Lakers will not be working the way they did under Jackson. Phil made the triangle offense famous and used it to fuel many a charge at the NBA World Championship. Brown though has already
suggested that the Lakers will not be applying the scheme next season.
He instead would be using some variation of the “Two Towers” approach used by the San Antonio Spurs when they won the NBA World Championship with Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Brown is also aiming to focus more on defence and
get the Lakers to play a more gritty game than last season.
That though doesn’t mean that the new coach doesn’t have respect for Jackson. He said he held the former Lakers head coach in the highest regard, as he should, and recalled talking to him once after a game.
"I saw him in the back hallway after the game and I walked up to him and I said, 'Coach, I wish that we would have won the game. I could have definitely used that extra $10,000 more than you did,'" Brown said with a smile on his
face. "He just laughed. ... That was the extent of our conversation."
Jackson was a truly great coach who won a total of 11 NBA titles in his decade’s long coaching career. He was the guiding hand for Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen during their Chicago Bulls years of dominance and then led Shaquille
O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to three consecutive NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers.
When Pau Gasol was paired with Bryant in 2007, Jackson again took the side to 3 consecutive NBA Finals, this time though he could muster just 2 championships. His last season in the game ended on a low note though, with the Lakers
swept in the 2nd round of playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks.
The loss was viewed as an embarrassment by the Lakers faithful and Brown now plans to use it as extra motivation for the next campaign.
"That in and of itself is a motivation that I could not muster up to put inside of anybody. They have it on their own already because of how it went down last year."
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