The Los Angeles Lakers have announced that they’ll honor Phil Jackson with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena next season, joining the likes of Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Chick Hearn and Pat Riley.
"Phil Jackson defines championship basketball for a reason," Lakers acting governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. "His masterful approach to coaching brought out the best in some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. After he accepted my dad's invitation to join the Lakers, Phil's unmatched creativity and commitment to excellence restored our championship legacy, bringing five titles and setting a standard of excellence for generations to come.
"It is a great joy to be able to mark that achievement with the statue he so richly deserves."
Jackson last coached the Lakers during the 2010-11 season, helping Los Angeles win five championships in his 11 seasons with the franchise.
He’s had to manage quite a few personalities during his time in Hollywood, namely Kobe and Shaq.
Kobe and Shaq’s personalities are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, but the legendary coach found a way to balance things out.
Bryant was known to be a fierce competitor and no shot was bad enough for him to take. Jackson initially enabled that to keep Bryant’s competitive spirit high and later found other ways for Bryant to channel that energy.
Jackson implemented the triangle offense, ultimately serving as a guiding principle to teach Bryant to trust his teammates and not dominate every single possession.
Jackson raised the bar for O’Neal so high that O’Neal was forced out of his comfort zone, and he took a militant approach, telling him he needed to match Wilt Chamberlain’s threshold of playing 48 minutes a game.
Jackson would also straight up tell O’Neal that he’d have to learn how to deal with Bryant’s aggressive mindset because taking that away would effectively ruin the team.
A lot of these stories, of course, sound a lot better in hindsight, but there were really growing pains Jackson has had to endure throughout his time in Los Angeles.
The post-O’Neal era was not pretty at first, but Jackson and Bryant were eventually able to rebuild a winning culture and seamlessly integrate Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum into the mix.
There’s a reason why “The Zen Master” was able to help this historic franchise win five championships.
