"He had his sneakers on and had his socks on": Phil Jackson and the Lakers were once left in shock after Shaquille O'Neal arrived naked to practice
Legendary coach Phil Jackson coached some of the greatest players of all time over his 20-year coaching career with the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers. This includes NBA legends such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Scottie Pippen.
During his coaching tenure, Jackson garnered a reputation as one of the most esteemed coaches in the league. However, like everyone else who encountered the big man, the “Zen Master” still had to put up with O’Neal’s shenanigans during his time in LA.
In 2013, Jackson made an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” to promote his book “Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.”
Jackson was asked about a story he told in his book about a time that “Shaq” showed up to a Lakers practice naked. Jackson first explained that he had a system in place for players who arrived late to practice:
“You know, I had a fine structure for players that showed up late,” Jackson said.
“So, if you come in late, you pay a certain amount of money. It’s minimal if it’s five minutes because that’s allowance time for, you know, a big city, right? After that, it gets pretty severe.”
Jackson then said that O’Neal was late for practice one day, so the team practiced free throws while they waited for him to arrive. However, to everyone’s surprise, the big man showed up wearing just socks and sneakers.
“So, anyway, five minutes, we’re kind of waiting, we’re all standing around, (we say) ‘Hey, let’s just shoot some free throws down at this end of the court until Shaq gets here and then we’ll start practice,’” Jackson said.
“We know he’s there; the trainer came in and said, ‘Shaq showed up.’ Shaq did show up. He had his sneakers on and had his socks on and that was it.”
Leno then joked that seeing O’Neal almost fully naked must have been a frightening sight. However, Jackson said that he found the prank to be quite humorous.
“It’s pretty funny, it’s pretty funny,” Jackson said.
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Also read: Scottie Pippen once accused Phil Jackson of being racist citing infamous 1994 playoffs incident: "It was a racial move"
Phil Jackson on the main difference between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant
During his 2013 appearance on The Tonight Show, Phil Jackson was also asked about his comparison of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in his book. Jackson then spoke about how the two NBA legends were very similar before touching on one major difference between the two.
Jackson said that both Jordan and Bryant were two of the most ultra-competitive players he’d ever been around. However, according to Jackson, Jordan was extremely competitive both on and off the court, while Bryant’s competitiveness was more limited to basketball.
“They both have this competitive zeal — it’s unmatched. You tell them to run through a wall and they’ll say, ‘How deep and how wide and how high,’ and everything else. They’ll go through the wall." Jackson said
“However, the competitiveness for Kobe stops at the end of the basketball court. He’s not competitive anymore. Michael, he wants to race you in a car; he wants to beat you in ping pong; he wants to play cards with you; he wants to beat you in golf. You know, all those things.”
Jordan and Bryant’s competitive nature certainly served them well, as the two legends together helped Jackson win a whopping 11 NBA titles.
Also read: "That's the greatest player I ever had": 11-time NBA Champ Phil Jackson crowns Michael Jordan as the GOAT over Kobe Bryant