Phil Jackson admits his last season with the Los Angeles Lakers was a disappointment – NBA Update
NBA coaching legend Phil Jackson is one of the most decorated individuals in the history of the league, but he ended his glorious journey on a sad note last season. Jackson recently admitted that the exit of Los Angeles Lakers
in the second round of playoffs last season has been hard to swallow.
"There is nothing that could have gone worse for a basketball team than the way we finished our season last year," Jackson said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "Struggling with New Orleans ... and going into the next
round [against Dallas] we needed everyone to start playing well and we just couldn't find that little magical thing that you always hope you have as a coach, the chemistry that makes a team work well.”
Phil is a torch bearer not only in basketball, but in the entire sports world. A man with the magic tough, Jackson won a total of 11 NBA Championships - 6 as head coach of the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen
were creating history and other 5 came at the Los Angeles Lakers, where Jackson won 3 consecutive with the duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, and two more with the current Lakers roster.
However, the end of his career wasn’t as pleasant as the old master would have liked. Jackson’s Lakers were below par in his retirement year, bundling through the first round of the playoffs but falling prey to the Dallas Mavericks
after wards.
The Dallas series saw one of the worst defeats of Jackson’s illustrious coaching career. Los Angeles, who were two-time defending champions, were swept by the Mavericks for a humiliating 4 – 0 score line that put an end to their
hopes of a three-peat.
The Lakers possessed possibly the more talented roster, but the Mavs had veterans on their side who knew how to get the job done. Their German super star Dirk Nowitzki produced an amazing display to outshine Kobe, providing the
platform for Jackson’s disappointing end.
The now retired legend pinpointed the first game as the key battle in the series, saying the Lakers lost the plot early and never recovered after wards.
"To lose an 18-point lead in the first game [against the Mavericks], not being able to outscore your opponent on your home court in the fourth quarter," he said, "to give them life in the very first game of the Dallas series was
foreboding what was going to happen to us.”
That is in the past though and, for now, Jackson is enjoying his retirement. He has changed his mind about it before, but it seems like the man has finally said goodbye to the sport for good.
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