Who is the most successful head coach in NBA history? If measured by the standard of the number of championships, Phil Jackson, known as the "Zen Master", is undoubtedly the most suitable for this title, because during his tenure as head coach, he led two teams to complete three consecutive championship feats, holding 11 championship rings, such a number of championships, even "Cardinal" Auerbach can only bow to the wind, but in the league, the evaluation of Phil Jackson has always been mixed, why is this?
First look at Phil Jacksonson's coaching career, in 1980, Phil Jackson, who chose to retire from the player status, chose to become a coach, and in 1987, as an assistant coach, he joined the Bulls, and in 1989, it was undoubtedly the beginning of Phil Jackson's success, becoming the head coach of the Bulls, in the next 8 seasons, the Bulls under his supervision, completed 2 triple crowns, after leaving the Bulls, Phil Jackson, who had a year off, took over the Lakers and coached the first season After leading the team to win the championship and complete the triple crown for the third time, after experiencing a departure and return, and bringing back two championship trophies for the Lakers again, Phil Jackson officially announced his retirement in 2011.
11 championship trophies, four-time all-star coach, 1996 best coach of the season, in 2007 as a coach inducted into the Hall of Fame, a total of 1640 career coaching games, achieved 1155 game wins, became the sixth thousand wins in NBA history, but also became the most playoff winning coach in the history of North American professional sports, the NBA won the most championships, the highest winning coach in NBA history.
Jackson's coaching career can definitely be called great and successful, so why is his evaluation mixed? In fact, one of the most basic reasons can be said that Phil Jackson is "successful and frustrated.".
Triangle offense, although the old Winter invented, but more often, the triangle attack has become synonymous with Phil Jackson, and it is precisely by relying on this set of tactical systems to hold Phil Jackson on the altar, and also relying on this set of systems, so that Jackson finally fell from the altar, it is true that the triangular attack This tactic is successful in the NBA, but the drawbacks of this tactic are also very obvious, and the triangle attack does not need the core superstar to have a strong singles ability and good strategy ability. It also needs superstar players and all players in the team to have excellent ball quotient and tactical execution ability, because a tactical launch, how each player on the court runs, how to pass the ball, how the next tactic should change, each player must know all the positions on the court, which makes the triangle offense an offensive system that cannot be applied to all teams, which is why the Triangular Offense can be successful in the Bulls and Lakers, while in the Knicks, the Triangle Offense not only failed to make the team better. It even played the opposite role, but Phil Jackson was too superstitious about his triangle offensive system, and did not change his tactical play according to the style of play and player changes in the league era, as Popovich did, and the Knicks became a failure of his insistence on triangle offense.
The reason why Phil is called "Zen Master", in addition to his own use of Zen to cultivate himself, he prefers to use movies and meditation to make players understand the truth when the players are contradictory, to put it in layman's terms, Phil Jackson is like a soul chicken soup master, using the soul chicken soup to manage the team, this way looks good, if the team does not have a big contradiction, it is enough to maintain the unity of the team, but once a big contradiction breaks out, the role of this kind of soul chicken soup is infinitely close to zero, after all, in the NBA, Most of the players are strong men with excessive hormone secretion and no understanding of Zen, which is why after Kobe Bryant and O'Neal had a conflict when the Lakers were coaching, Zen master's Zen Dafa did not work.
Speaking of this, some people may refute it, after all, the famous thorn-headed Rodman tried his best during the Bulls, and the OK combination was very good at cooperating on the court even after the conflict broke out, but Rodman was not so much subdued by Jackson, but rather Jordan's credit, as for the OK combination, the desire for the championship is the main reason to support their cooperation, and Kobe Bryant was on the court at the time, there has been a situation of ignoring tactical singles, and at the same time, because jackson's team O'Neal has also triggered a contradiction between the two of them. This is also why Jackson, who is superstitious about Zen, will become a god stick in the mouths of some players.
And the Zen master himself, can not achieve the kind of self-cultivation in Zen, rather than no desire and no demand, he wants to become a godfather, why did the Lakers godfather Jerry West leave the Lakers and say that he will no longer play for the Lakers in this life? In fact, it is not so much the contradiction between West and the Lakers, but rather the contradiction between him and Jackson, in fact, as early as the Bulls period, Phil Jackson was conflicted with the management because he wanted to get more power, if it were not for Jordan's insistence, he would probably not be able to keep the position of head coach, and during the Lakers, because of the gradual retreat of the old Bath behind the scenes, coupled with the special relationship between Jackson and Jenny Bass, West before leaving, completely overshadowed by Jackson, which also made West heartbroken. The decision to leave the Lakers was made.
If as the team coach, Phil is a success, but as a manager, Phil is undoubtedly a failure, and the Lakers seem to understand this truth, after West left, Jackson did not become the manager of the Lakers as he wished, but Phil seems to have not dispelled his determination to become a godfather, and finally became the president of the Knicks in 2014, look at what Phil did during the president, in addition to the only commendable decision to select Bo Shen, nepotism, Choosing Fisher, who has no coaching experience, as the head coach, stubbornly insisting on the triangle attack, resulting in the team's record is not in retreat, there is no bright spot in the reinforcements, and his trust in Fisher is even more the contradiction of the Knicks coaching, and finally the Knicks parted ways with Phil Jackson in advance with 2 years and 24 million US dollars left in the contract.
In addition, Phil Jackson's coaching characteristics are also full of controversy, as a head coach, Phil Jackson is good at using superstars, triangle offensive tactics can also allow superstar players to get a lot of weak side singles opportunities in the system, play excellent data and performance, but Jackson is not good at building team lineups and adjusting role players, just like Cardinal Auerbach's evaluation of him" Phil Jackson never tried to build a team, to teach them the most basic things, when he went to the team, Things are actually ready, he only has to bring the team to his own system, he doesn't have to think about how to make the player go further, he just needs to sell this player and then buy another one", and it is true, whether it is Jordan of the year, or the OK combination, before he took charge, has entered the league superstar ranks, if you change a head coach, it may not be impossible to achieve the same results as Phil Jackson.