Jackson was called a racist by LeBron and his posse back in the day for calling his posse a posse. I don't remember if the media agreed way back then, I doubt I was paying attention, but they probably did. I like Phil Jackson, though. Read one of his books more than once.
Please. Pippen was a great, maybe the greatest, second fiddle but Kawhi is on a higher level, as proven by his leading the Raptors to a title. Pippen proved he couldn't be the lead dog in Chicago, Houston, and Portland. His offensive skills were just too limited. An interesting debate that can be had is which is more valuable/difficult: to be a great second fiddle who was critical to winning multiple championships or a good lead dog who couldn't win a ring (eg, Barkley, Malone, Dominique, Harden). I'd go with the latter.
I'll refrain from saying anything. I am a lot of good things in this life. But if something happened to my son I would not be those things.
"The average player's career is a very short period of his life, and the minute he's through nobody knows who is. Twenty-five years from now the only people who will remember me will be a few trivia experts, and that's exactly how it should be. A lot of black players look at their careers differently. Many blacks have let themselves believe that being in the NBA is one of the greatest things a person can accomplish. I believe this type of feeling is ultimately very destructive, because the only way you can live with it is to get into a heavy fantasy trip. I've seen the process develop many times, and very few players ever find happiness that way." … LeBron James on whether he has any relationship with Phil Jackson: “Zero,” James said, when asked if he had any previous ties to Jackson. "No relationship at all. I had nothing but respect for him as a coach for what he was able to do. Obviously he was at the helm of [the team featuring] my favorite player of all time [Michael Jordan], and also being there growing up and watching him with the Lakers, but I got nothing for him." "I've been in the league for 14 years and from the beginning two years in, I felt like I wanted to put my guys in positions of power, give those guys an opportunity to better themselves," James said. "You know, in the beginning we were highly criticized and I was highly criticized about what I wanted to do to help some guys around me become very successful in business. "It just sucks that now at this point having one of the biggest businesses you can have both on and off the floor, having a certified agent in Rich Paul, having a certified business partner in Maverick Carter that's done so many great business [deals], that the title for young African-Americans is the word 'posse.'" "We see the success that we have, but then there is always someone that lets you know still how far we still have to go as African-Americans," James said. "But it won't stop us from doing what we need to do as a group," he added. "We're not going to let Phil Jackson's comments stop us from doing what we need to do. It just gives us extra motivation. But it's still sad." James said he didn't think Jackson would use the term "posse" to describe a powerful sports figure who isn't African-American. "If you go and read the definition of what the word 'posse' is, it's not what I've built over my career," James said. "It's not what I stand for, it's not what my family stands for. I believe the only reason he used that word is because he sees young African-Americans trying to make a difference." "It's not surprising," James said. "If [Jackson] says it out to the media, you can only imagine what he says when the camera is not on him or the headset or whatever you guys record on. Just got a lot more work to do."
That's some pretty crazy stuff and fortunately Phil Jackson is too old for us to have to witness the results of him posting things like this on Twitter. NBA players and the NBA DO foster a pretty different (I'd say in many ways worse, in some ways better) culture than the NFL, MLB or NHL - but that has nothing to do with race and everything to do with cultural upbringing and cultural expectations. Larry Fitzgerald ain't no Scottie Pippen. Andre Johnson ain't no Kevin Durant. Jerome Iginla wasn't no Steve Francis. That being said, I still believe Lebron is all about putting his posse around him and that he has an immature and naive worldview but often tries to play himself off as some kind of Nelson Mandela of basketball. Yeah, no.
Does anyone else think that Phil probably had sex with his significant others as well? Phil is extremely hung supposedly.
Guess Harden is also racist for not allowing Paul to succeed in Houston. Why would he do that? Knew something was up...
The first thing that came to my mind after reading the title was Rodman's HOF speech. Pippen is such an a**hole.
In that case Phil & Jerry Kruse are homophobes because they didn't have any homosexuals on their team
This makes me love Rudy even more for calling rookie Cat’s number on the last play in Game 1 vs Phil Jackson’s Lakers. puts a whole new light on Shaq’s ability to chase Cat down at the rim on a surprise play attempt, Phil probably warned them in the huddle ... “be prepared guys for Rudy to not call the last play for Scottie...Rudy’s not dumb.”
One thing’s for sure: I’ve never heard Rudy publicly talking **** about his current or former players the way Phil Jackson or George Karl have done.