Phil Jackson - Biography

Last Editor: Twister665				Phil Jackson Biography -   Name : Phil Jackson Birth Name : Philip Douglas Jackson Date of Birth : 17 September 1945 Place of Birth : Deer Lodge, Montana, USA Height : 6' 8'' Nationality : American Profession : Sports Coach, Actor Nickname : Zen Master

Phil Jackson Trivia -

He is considered one of the best coaches in the N.B.A. and has 9 championships to his credit as a coach. Jackson was the Chicago Bulls coach but did not get along with the general manager, Jerry Krause. His parents were Pentecostal missionaries. An All-American at the University of North Dakota. Won a CBA (Continental Basketball Association) Championship as coach of the Albany (NY) Patroons in 1984. Divorced his wife June when she declined to moved to Los Angeles after he was named head coach of the Lakers on 16 June 1999. He currently dates Jeanie Buss, the daughter of Lakers' owner Jerry Buss. Has 11 NBA championship rings: 2 as a player with the New York Knicks, 6 as coach of the Chicago Bulls, and 3 as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Phil Jackson Detailed Biography -

Phil Jackson, actually Philip Douglas Jackson, (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) was the head coach of the NBA Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, and of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to present. Phil Jackson has a total of 11 NBA championship rings: two as a player with the New York Knicks, six as coach of the Bulls, and three as coach of the Lakers. Phil Jackson's nine NBA championships as a head coach ties him with Red Auerbach for the all-time lead in that category. He is well known for his approach to coaching, which is influenced by Eastern philosophy, notably Zen. Jackson was raised in a strict Pentecostal home; both of his parents were ministers. Most of Phil Jackson's early childhood was spent in Montana; his parents later moved the family to Williston, North Dakota, where he attended high school and was a multi-sport star. Jackson went on to play basketball at the University of North Dakota. In 1967, Phil Jackson was drafted by the Knicks, and found that the skills that served him well at the small-college level were all but useless in the NBA. While he was a good all-around athlete, with unusually long arms, he was limited as a shooter, and did not have great speed. He compensated for his physical limitations by sheer intelligence and extremely hard work, especially on defense, and eventually established himself as a fan favorite and one of the NBA's leading substitutes. Phil Jackson was a key member of Knicks teams that won NBA titles in 1970 and 1973. Soon after the second title, several key starters of the championship teams retired, eventually forcing Jackson into the starting lineup, where his limitations were exposed. Phil Jackson retired from play in 1980. In the following years, Phil Jackson mainly coached in lower-level leagues, notably the Continental Basketball Association and the BSN of Puerto Rico. While in the CBA, he won his first coaching championship, leading the Albany Patroons to their first CBA title. Phil Jackson regularly sought an NBA job, but was invariably turned down; during his playing years, he had acquired a reputation for being sympathetic to the counterculture, which may have scared off potential NBA employers. He finally earned an NBA job in 1987 as an assistant with the Bulls. Two years later, he would be elevated to the head coaching job, and the rest was history. As time went by, the tension between Phil Jackson and Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, who had originally hired him, grew ever more extreme. Some examples of the tension include: * During the summer of 1997, Krause's stepdaughter married. All of the Bulls assistant coaches and their wives were invited to the wedding, as was Tim Floyd, then the head coach at Iowa State, whom Krause was openly courting as Jackson's successor (and would eventually succeed Jackson). Jackson and his wife were not invited, and Krause did not tell them of the snub; they found out from the wife of assistant Bill Cartwright. * During contract negotiations for Jackson's final year with the Bulls, when the topic of a potential extension past the 1997-98 season came up, Krause reportedly told Jackson, "I don't care if you go 82-and-0, you're gone." After the Bulls' final title of the Jordan era in 1998, Phil Jackson left the team. He took a year off before joining the Lakers. On June 18, 2004, three days after suffering his first ever loss in an NBA finals series (against the Detroit Pistons), Jackson announced that he would leave his position with the Lakers. Phil Jackson has authored The Last Season, which describes his point of view of the tensions that surrounded the 2003-2004 Lakers team. He was rehired by the Lakers on June 14, 2005. On June 15, 2005, The Lakers announced the rehiring of Phil Jackson, after his one year off from coaching and from the NBA. A refurbished Jackson is expected for the 2006 season. Phil Jackson's main tactical contribution, both with the Bulls and with the Lakers, was the modernization of the triangle offense. He was also noted as a gifted handler of difficult players, notably Dennis Rodman and Shaquille O'Neal.