Zen and the art of winning NBA championships

Phil Jackson – The Zen Master

Before a season got underway, Phil Jackson would ask his squad to line up behind the baseline and be ready for his statement. He would lecture them on exactly what they were in for and reveal his plans. And he would say, “God has ordained me to teach you and coach you about the system of basketball.”

If these words from a man who stood over two metres tall don’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, then maybe the 13 championship rings will.

It was his unique approach to basketball that made Philip Douglas ‘Phil’ Jackson the most successful coach in NBA history. Nicknamed the ‘Zen Master’ for his philosophical approach to coaching and playing the game of basketball, and for employing methods such as yoga and meditation at team practice sessions, Jackson was, quite literally, a man every player and coach looked up to. Coaches respected his intelligence and achievements while players revered him for the father figure he was by the sidelines.

Basketball was his religion

Phil Jackson almost didn’t made it to the NBA. Born to a pastor and an evangelist, his destiny seemed to lie in the church. But churchgoers were deprived of seeing a 6’8” minister delivering sermons as he picked up basketball, a decision that ultimately led to him being drafted by the New York Knicks.

As a player, Jackson didn’t exactly make a lasting impact in the league. He was just a member of the supporting cast when the New York Knicks won two titles in the early ‘70s. But he was a fan favourite, and under the tutelage of William ‘Red’ Holzman, he learned everything there was to being a professional basketball player. He spent 13 years in the NBA before retiring in 1980.

After he made up his mind to get into coaching, he had a few stints in other basketball leagues in the United States and Puerto Rico, before making it big when he was hired as the Chicago Bulls’ assistant coach in 1987. And in 1989, he was made the head coach of the Bulls. And this is where Jackson’s second innings in the NBA began.

Coaching the Invinci-Bulls

With Jackson at the helm and Michael Jordan leading the Bulls, the team redefined domination as they made the playoffs in all of the nine seasons he was in charge. As the NBA gained worldwide popularity in the ‘90s, it was the Bulls that garnered a lot of attention with the likes of Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr. Even though Jordan’s retirement in 1993 caused a brief hiccup, that didn’t stop them from accomplishing the three-peat twice, which included a record 72-10 regular season run, as the famed Triangle Offense turned the Bulls from a struggling team into the ‘Unbeta-bulls’.

The end of an era at the Bulls as they accomplished a second three-peat in 1998

Success and enemies go hand-in-hand. And with the Bulls putting Chicago on the map, General Manager Jerry Krause’s jealousy over Jackson getting the credit for building a championship team ultimately led to the pair having a fractured relationship towards the end of the Bulls era. It reached a boiling point when Jackson questioned Krause’s loyalty, after which Krause decided he had had enough and did his best to get rid of him.

Jackson had no intention of hanging around in such a climate, and quit after the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat in 1998. The entire fiasco was too much for him to handle and he swore never to return to coaching again. He had nothing left to prove. He’d won six titles in nine years and was even voted to the list of Top 10 Coaches in NBA History.

But as it turns out, he was only half done.