Shaquille O’Neal believes Phil Jackson will return to NBA as a head coach of the New York Knicks
Former Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal, who is nowadays busy promoting his new book ‘Shaq Uncut: My Story’, recently made an interesting prediction.
While talking to the New York Post, the retired centre stated that he believes Hall of Famer Phil Jackson will make a comeback as a head coach and will most probably take the place of Mike D’Antoni at the New York Knicks.
"He may come back. Phil says he’s never coming back but he changed my NBA career. His focus and the way he did things and the way he taught us how to do things, he did it on a cool, calm respectable level. Then I went to Miami
and we had problems with all the [yelling]. I’m like, ‘We just won three out of four with this guy [Jackson] so why would I do it this way?’ That’s why we had problems." Shaq said.
Phil Jackson has a strong connection with New York as he was not only drafted by the Knicks during the 1967 NBA Draft with 17th overall pick; he also played at the Madison Square Garden for more than a decade. During
that time, Phil Jackson won two NBA Championships as a player before shifting his talent to the New Jersey Nets in 1978.
Due to his strong and successful history with Knicks, it has been rumoured that Jackson will join the franchise on the coaching staff if he ever plans to make a comeback.
And the big Shaq has endorsed the same view.
In 2010, the 11-time NBA Championship winning coach announced that he will retire after the season, not knowing that there will be a drastic end to his sparkling coaching career.
While Jackson was hoping to secure his fourth three-peat of the career and second with the two-time defending champions Los Angeles Lakers, the 2011 play-offs had a dramatic turnaround in store. The Lakers were gunned down by the
eventual champions Dallas Mavericks in the Conference semi-finals 4-0, a result which shocked the whole league.
The 66-year-old Phil Jackson however stood by his decision of retiring and left NBA in a disheartening fashion.
Jackson coached only two teams Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers in his career and worked with the best players of NBA which include the legendary Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Shaq’s prediction may hold weight because Jackson has a history of making comebacks. He had previously revoked his decision when he was considering retirement in 2010 and signed a new contract with Lakers. Many people believe that
the Zen Master still has it in him and that he should kick start his career again and Shaq seems to be one of the more optimistic ones.
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