In reading the final chapters of Phil Jacksons biography, 11 Rings, the Soul of Success, I was struck by his approach to try to achieve unity among players, which is just as much a challenge as you might think, given the ego-driven attitudes of star players. Of course, he was dealing with the elite of the elite with Michael and Kobe. It is easy to say he was lucky, and of course he was, it is senseless to think otherwise. But consider how many good teams the Bulls and Lakers beat to reach the top of the game. One thing that made me pause and think for a moment was a passage about Kobe telling Phil the triangle offense was too simple and impeded his creativity. He eventually learned, after injuries slowed him down, that making his teammates better made him more effective as a player, also. But, back to the too simple concept...there was no game plan more simple than the pick and roll game John Stockton and Karl Malone played for the Utah Jazz, and they probably would have won a couple of championships, if, to paraphrase Pat Riley, they had not been unfortunate enough to be at their prime at the same time as the Michael Jordan-led Bulls. The final line of Phils book, if I recall correctly, was very good - The soul of success is dealing with what is. An apt and profound ending for a book by a practitioner of Zen mindfulness meditation :)
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:03:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015