Phil Jackson Proves It’s All About the Money in Kobe vs. Jordan Debate
Since when did selling out for a few book sales become a practice of Zen?
One thing became clear after Phil Jackson’s declaration of Michael Jordan’s superiority to Kobe Bryant in his new book, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success, Jackson is more than just a basketball genius.
While Jackson has never been shy to take shots at Bryant, one thing always remained unsaid. It was something that the majority of us knew, but would find ultimate closure if it came from the mouth of Phil himself.
After all, who better to speak on the two but the man who benefited from eleven rings between the two elite stars?
Well, that closure has finally come.
Speaking on a number of things, ranging from their leadership abilities to their offensive and defensive prowess, Jackson proclaimed Jordan superior in every facet of not just the game of basketball, but as men and leaders as well (via ESPN.com):
“One of the biggest differences between the two stars from my perspective was Michael’s superior skills as a leader,” wrote Jackson. “Though at times he could be hard on his teammates, Michael was masterful at controlling the emotional climate of the team with the power of his presence. Kobe had a long way to go before he could make that claim. He talked a good game, but he’d yet to experience the cold truth of leadership in his bones, as Michael had in his bones.”
In terms of their offensive prowess, it was Jordan’s sense of the moment that propelled him past Bryant:
“Jordan was also more naturally inclined to let the game come to him and not overplay his hand, whereas Kobe tends to force the action, especially when the game isn’t going his way. When his shot is off, Kobe will pound away relentlessly until his luck turns. Michael, on the other hand, would shift his attention to defense or passing or setting screens to help the team win the game.”
While I’m not going to argue with someone as accomplished as Jackson, I do recall witnessing plenty of Jordan forcing the action.
It’s not as if I disagree with Jackson’s assessment of the two players. For my money, Jordan is without a doubt the greatest guard in the history of basketball and a top-3 player of all time, behind only the great Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (again, just my opinion, but check the ring count and stats).
It’s the timing that has me irked.
The fame, fortune and jewelry were not enough, apparently, to satisfy Jackson. It would appear that the two have still not done enough for the smuggest of “Zen Masters.” Jackson is now using the same star power that drove him to eleven championships to drive himself to higher book sales.
These are two legends of the game and deserve better than to be used as cash-grabs. More importantly, Bryant deserved better.
It’s not easy to try to emulate greatness. Yet he tried anyway and came as close as anyone ever could. That in itself is a feat that should be celebrated. Instead, Jackson chose to twist that greatness and thereby diminished it.
Jackson has placed Jordan on such a high pedestal that it has marred what he had in Bryant. Bryant should be remembered as Jordan’s closest peer. Instead, Jackson’s book made him out to be far from it.
The worst part of it all was that he did it for his own selfish reasons. Everyone knows that money, perhaps even as much as the rings, drives Jackson. There was a good chance he would have been the coach of the Lakers this season if it wasn’t so important to him.
Money was what propelled him to throw one of the greatest stars of my lifetime under the bus. Money tarnished the legacy of Kobe Bryant. Money was all Phil Jackson was after.
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Why It’s Time for Michigan and Chris Webber to Make Up and Move on
After 10 long years of not being able to contact one another, the University of Michigan and former Wolverine basketball star Chris Webber now have an opportunity to reconnect. Both parties should take advantage of this chance, which will help the program bridge the gap between its past and present.
For the past decade, Michigan had to disassociate itself from Webber as part of the fallout from the Ed Martin scandal. An NCAA investigation revealed Martin gave $616,000 to Webber, Maurice Taylor, Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock. Make no mistake, those are some serious NCAA infractions.
In addition to the disassociation from Webber and the three others, the Wolverines were hit with crippling scholarship reductions. The program is only now recovering from that portion of the sanctions.
There is no denying Webber had a hand in what set Michigan back all these years. Does this mean Webber owes athletic director Dave Brandon an apology, though? Not exactly.
This case is not as simple as it seems. Martin, who admitted he laundered money from an illegal gambling operation, developed relationships with Detroit basketball players very early in their careers. Some came in contact with Martin as early as middle school. Whether one of the youngsters was a star did not matter.
“The biggest misconception was that Ed only looked out for the players that were the stars,” former Michigan standout Jalen Rose said in ESPN Films’ Fab Five documentary. “Ed looked out for all of the kids, a couple of us became stars.”
Nothing could have kept Martin from meeting up with Webber. As Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! put it, Ed Martin was a “big-time dude” and nothing stopped him from getting the things he wanted.
“In the end you have one extremely savvy adult, armed with cash and gifts, with a clear motivation to use these kids. And then you have the kids, in Webber’s case just an eighth-grader, in the cross hairs,” Wetzel wrote. “That isn’t a fair relationship. That isn’t a level playing field…Chris Webber never stood a chance.”
What made things even worse for Webber is the fact Michigan never limited Martin’s access to the program either. Martin formed a bond with head coach Steve Fisher in the late 1980s. This relationship helped him get anything from tickets to rooms at the team’s Final Four hotel in 1992.
Fisher could have done more to prevent some of these improprieties from happening as well. According to Chris Balas of TheWolverine.com, Fisher and the staff did not do enough when it came to policing the players off the floor.
“I’m not going to blame (Webber, Bullock, Traylor and Taylor) either completely. I’m going to blame the coaching staff for the way they acted,” Balas said in an interview on The Huge Show. “It’s up to your coaches not just to police, but to teach these kids too, and I think they failed in a lot of areas.”
Taking all of this into account, Webber and Michigan owe each other an apology. Since both parties are at fault, there is no reason why the two cannot come to a mutual understanding.
Mistakes were made. Apologies will not change anything that has already transpired. The only thing either side can do now is develop a relationship that will benefit the program going forward. Prospects being able to connect with past stars is always a plus when it comes to recruiting.
Once the disassociation ended, Brandon told The Associated Press he is open to sitting down with Webber.
“I wasn’t around when all of this happened,” he said. “I’ve never had an opportunity to interact with them to talk about anything and I am hopeful that opportunity will present itself.”
At this point in time, Michigan does not need to reconnect with Webber. Head coach John Beilein guided the Wolverines to a Big Ten Conference title and the Final Four over the past two seasons. Recruiting is better than it has been in quite some time with the No. 12 class in the country coming to campus this summer.
Michigan and Webber should make an effort to put the past behind them and move forward. Reunite the entire Fab Five for the first time since 1993. Celebrate Webber’s legacy as a Wolverine, which extends far beyond the infamous timeout.
The Detroit native is ranked inside the top 10 in school history for career blocks (No. 2), field-goal percentage (No. 3), rebounding average (No. 6), steals (No. 10) and scoring average (No. 10). All of those records were accumulated in just two seasons. Could you imagine where Webber would rank had he returned with the rest of the Fab Five for the 1993-94 campaign?
Love him, or hate him, Webber is one of the all-time greats to have played at Michigan. It is time for Webber to come back. Hopefully, the university allows him to return in the near future.
Follow me on Twitter: @Zach_Dirlam.
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It’s hard to get inside the mind of Derrick Rose
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LeBron James on historic MVP: ‘It’s very humbling’
This is James’ fourth MVP award, putting him in elite company
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Randolph on Griffin: ‘It’s a big-boy game’
Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph has no sympathy for Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin who left Game 5 in the third quarter for a previously injured ankle and did not return. Asked about his thoughts on Griffin,
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New York Knicks: It’s a Hard Knock Life for Carmelo Anthony
The New York Knicks made a somewhat surprising return to relevancy this year as they not only captured the Atlantic Division title, but also the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Throughout the bulk of the season, they have been fueled by Carmelo Anthony, the superstar the city has been desperate for since the late 1990s. However, if you listen to the radio or read the papers, it seems Anthony is criticized for every misstep he takes.
Sure, being drafted in the same class as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh has left Anthony a little behind the eight ball, and his sometimes childish behavior during his tenure in Denver surely did him no favors.
Yet, no one can deny that Anthony is playing the best basketball of his career and has the Knicks in position to make a deep run in the playoffs.
If you would ask any Knicks fan at the beginning of the year if they would sign up for the team winning 50-plus games and a division title, I bet they would say yes in a heartbeat. The team was genuinely fun to watch, and Anthony carried himself with a different demeanor during the season.
He would regularly speak more of putting the team first and wanting to do what was necessary to make the leap to championship gold.
When the team began to take on water during a disastrous road trip out West in early March, it looked like the Knicks would fade back into mediocrity. Anthony was fighting a lingering knee issue and the team generally looked apathetic on the court. All across the city, there were cries that these were the same old Knicks and that they would bow out with a whimper in the first round.
Anthony would respond to the criticism and go on an absolute tear over the course of the last six weeks that included impressive wins over several playoff teams including Memphis and Oklahoma City en route to winning the scoring title.
Anthony was the first Knick since Bernard King to take home those honors.
During that impressive stretch, the Knicks locked up their first division title in nearly two decades and set up a first-round matchup with the Boston Celtics.
After talking a 3-0 series lead behind the strong balanced play of Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and Raymond Felton, a sweep seemed inevitable.
Then during Game 4, Anthony admittedly had one of the worst shooting games of his career as he went 10-of-35 from the field and missed many big shots down the stretch.
Yet again, fans were ready to jump down Anthony’s throat.
How could he keep shooting? Why is he such a ball hog? Didn’t he realize he was shooting the team in the foot?
Never mind the fact that Anthony had been playing out of his mind for nearly two months, including three impressive games in the playoffs.
Or the simple fact that you always want the ball in the hands of your best player during “crunch time.”
Carmelo Anthony wanted to come to the Knicks and bring a championship to a city that hadn’t had a relevant basketball team in well over a decade.
Several members of the media and countless numbers of fans don’t feel like Carmelo Anthony is a good enough player to build a team around, and that he will never win a title.
That may be true, but remember guys like Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Karl Malone never won titles either.
And we all know those guys were awful basketball players, right?
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It’s Criminally Wrong To Pin LA Lakers Failure on Mike D’Antoni
With the Los Angeles Lakers’ season officially over, speculation about Mike D’Antoni‘s job security is bound to kick into high gear.
A season of moderate highs and crushing lows ended with the Lakers being swept by the San Antonio Spurs in four uneventful games. While fingers will be pointed at D’Antoni for his inability to properly manage lineups or institute a system conducive to his multitude of stars, the fact remains that he was put in a lose-lose situation from day one.
Mike Brown was fired five games into the season. Five. If that wasn’t a strong enough signal that D’Antoni was walking into a volatile situation, then I don’t know what is.
D’Antoni‘s hiring puzzled fans who clamored for Phil Jackson’s return and ultimately enraged them after the Lakers went 12-18 in December and January.
However, a 25-11 finish over the season’s final three months gave the Lakers hope. The offense was clicking, the stars had worked themselves into their respective niches and all was right in the land of purple and gold.
Even with Kobe Bryant absent from the postseason journey, D’Antoni and the Lakers were expected to give the Spurs a run for their money thanks to the presence of Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and future Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash.
Alas, injuries plagued D’Antoni‘s trio of stars, and the pitchforks were out again.
So how can anyone blame a guy who found himself coaching a team resembling a D-League product rather than an NBA one?
You can’t.
Not even the demigod known as the Zen Master could have salvaged a victory with the lineup D’Antoni was forced to work with.
Were his defensive tactics a mess? Absolutely. But there’s no conceivable way you can point the finger at D’Antoni when he was trotting out a starting backcourt of Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock against Tony Parker, Danny Green and Manu Ginobili.
For the record, Morris and Goudelock recorded offensive efficiencies of 103 and 91, respectively, and allowed an even more discouraging 117 and 112 points per 100 possessions between them in the playoffs.
Factor in that Pau Gasol was playing with a torn finger ligament (via Kevin Ding on Twitter), and consider that Dwight Howard was the only member of the team’s original starting five playing at anything close to 100 percent.
And even when he was the center of attention for the Lakers, Howard was an enigmatic mess. His ejection from Game 4 proved just that.
D’Antoni makes for an easy scapegoat at this juncture, and he may very well prove to be the long-term one if the Lakers can’t improve upon his return (via Los Angeles Times) next season.
If anything, the front office should be questioned for hiring D’Antoni in the first place. His preferred up-tempo style was an odd choice for a team whose personnel was aging. However, D’Antoni put forth his best effort and acquitted himself nicely when it came to instituting an offensive system.
Examining the statistics, the Lakers not only finished in the top 10 in both points per game (sixth) and offensive rating (ninth), but they finished fifth in pace (94.4 possessions per 48 minutes).
In fact, over the course of April, the Lakers had lowered their defensive rating to a mark of 102.2 (although still not great), according to NBA.com, while their offensive rating sat at 106.3. With a net rating of just over four, the Lakers were trending in the right direction at the right time under D’Antoni.
Injuries, and lots of them, happened to be the team’s ultimate downfall.
Contrasted with those April numbers, the patchwork lineups D’Antoni was forced to roll with scored 90.6 points per 100 possessions in the postseason and allowed 111, according to NBA.com.
To put things in perspective, the Lakers only had one five-man unit play more than 30 minutes in the postseason and just two that played 10 minutes or more, according to NBA.com. In fact, examining the lineups used, no one grouping took the floor in more than two games over the course of the first-round series against the Spurs.
While you don’t need to credit D’Antoni for helping the Lakers reach the postseason, please consider the facts before you blame him for falling short with a supposed championship roster.
Note: All statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference unless noted otherwise.
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Dwightmare: It’s Mavs Shopping Time
DALLAS — Dwight Howard’s season with the Los Angeles Lakers could not have gone better for the covetous Dallas Mavericks, that is.
“A nightmare,” Howard said, describing Sunday’s Game 4 loss to the Spurs, wrapping up a four-game first-round sweep of the glitzy Lakers. “A bad dream. I couldn’t wake up out of it. It seemed like nothing could go right from the start.”
Yes, Howard was describing just that one game (a game in which he earned a third-quarter ejection in order to make his escape). But maybe he was also describing this entire Lakers season, one he can also make his escape from via July 1 free agency.
The Dwight-Lakers season is over. But will the free-agent-to-be’s nightmare continue? Or is the Dwight-Lakers era also over?
“The longer things go, the more opportunities present themselves,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban said recently. “That’s pretty much the way it works. The higher the payroll, the longer the losing streak, the better the chance th
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Why It’s No Slam Dunk That LA Lakers Trade Pau Gasol in 2013 Offseason
If the Los Angeles Lakers are swept out of the 2013 NBA playoffs in the first round by the San Antonio Spurs as expected, you can expect some big changes to follow in the offseason.
I’m just not so sure one of those changes will involve trading Pau Gasol.
Injuries and a lack of chemistry and consistency destroyed the Lakers’ season, and in the aftermath of a historically underachieving campaign, it’s easy to give in to the current desperation of the moment that a swift move to deal Gasol would signify.
However, once Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and team president Jim Buss recover from their greatest failure, a moment of reflection on the immediate future of the franchise may be in order.
Dealing Gasol for a collection of lesser role players has been a popular move for some people, but that was before Kobe Bryant got injured, and Gasol and Howard proved they could coexist in the paint.
Bryant’s recovery is expected to take anywhere from 6-9 months, and even though there are many who feel that Kobe will be ready for the 2013-14 season opener, the Lakers must have a contingency plan if he isn’t.
A healthy Howard and Gasol leading the Lakers’ frontcourt isn’t a bad place to start.
The Lakers may be on the verge of being swept by the Spurs, but in their three losses Howard and Gasol have averaged a combined 33 points and 24 rebounds per game, with Gasol recording a triple-double in the Lakers’ Game 3 120-89 drubbing.
Those numbers are just an extension of the chemistry that emerged between Howard and Gasol during the final games of the regular season. Imagine how much better they could be with an offseason to bond further and a full training camp to work out the remaining kinks.
Of course, that scenario depends on whether or not Howard decides to sign a long-term deal with the Lakers over the summer. But in the event Howard does decide to bolt for other pastures, Gasol would still provide the Lakers’ insurance that they will begin their next campaign with an elite player in the middle.
Part of Howard’s decision could hinge on the way Gasol has complemented him in the paint.
Many of Pau’s team-leading seven assists per game in the postseason have gone in Howard’s direction, and while Gasol may not be the stretch forward that head coach Mike D’Antoni envisioned, his court vision and play-making ability might be an equal trade-off.
If the Lakers choose to keep Gasol and re-sign Howard, they will begin next season with arguably the top frontcourt in the NBA, whether Kobe is healthy or not.
And if point guard Steve Nash can recover from his own injuries, the Lakers could still be a formidable team with Howard, Gasol and Nash as the focal points.
It’s doubtful the Lakers will receive anything close to equal value for Gasol, and while that can be expected, why make a deal for pieces that will not improve your team?
Gasol’s expiring contract could attract some suitors, but since it comes off the Lakers’ books in 2014 anyway, why not just play out the final season?
I agree the Lakers must make some changes for next season, but using the amnesty clause on Metta World Peace and getting rid of some of the dead weight on the bench would probably serve the same purpose as trading Gasol.
And the Lakers would still have an elite core of players to show for it.
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