Interviews
An Interview with Phil Jackson
Barnes & Noble.com: What made you want to write this book?
Phil Jackson: I had a personal blog on my computer, and in discussions with my agent, Jennifer Walsh from William Morris, about writing some books, my journaling came up. (I had an abbreviated journal published in Sport Magazine in 1984 while coaching with the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball League.) Jennifer implored me to write the journal entries as a publication because it was a story in the making. In analyzing the entries I had made up until December, I realized how right she was, but it became more than that to me. Journaling is a great outlet for a coach, detailing the emotional roller-coaster ride that is a long NBA season. It also serves as a timeline for looking back upon situations that cropped up during the season. But for me, it was a chance to really capture the last season of my contract and what the toll was/is for me physically, emotionally, and spiritually to be in the world of the NBA.
B&N.com: What is the meaning of the subtitle? Is finding a team's soul, so to speak, a key to your coaching?
PJ: My joy in coaching has been watching a group of two dozen men work together as staff and players to become a unit. There is a process of adjustment when the players take on roles and fit together as a team and the staff learns how to use the players' abilities, and the training staff
finds a way to keep the team in good physical and mental health. The final piece is the spiritual
health that brings a team together in esprit de corps. We failed to
bring that spiritual element together as a team in The Last Season.
B&N.com: What is the major theme of the book?
PJ: The theme is how personal troubles and problems are finally shelved to make a run at an NBA
title. The drama is how far can this team go with its fragmented personalities?
B&N.com: What is your coaching philosophy?
PJ: All of my former coaches have influenced my coaching style. Red Holzman of the New York Knicks was a great influence on my management style. Tex Winter is and was a mentor for me in tactics and fundamentals that led to me using a system he espoused with the sideline triangle offense. Bill Fitch was my college coach and had a great influence on me with his defensive philosophy and pressure defensive beliefs. There is plenty of basketball strategy in The Last Season.
B&N.com: When you coached those great Chicago Bulls teams, you were known for giving each player a book to read during the season. Did you follow that technique with your last Lakers team, and why do you do that?
PJ: Yes. I gave books to my players every year I coached. Usually those books were personally chosen for the players or staff member, but last year I gave them all Pat Conroy's book My Losing Season. I wanted them to read about a basketball team described by a "player" from my era (1967) and the effects and memories associated with losing.
B&N.com: How would you compare this last Lakers team you coached with the last Chicago team that you coached -- the one that beat the Jazz for the title?
PJ: The two teams were totally different. Styles I used coaching the Bulls had to be discarded, and new ways of dealing with this team were necessary.
B&N.com: You have won nine world championships, tied with Red Auerbach, but many people rank you higher since you won yours in an NBA that had about three times as many teams and a much longer playoff schedule. Would you like to come back as a coach and go for the tenth title?
PJ: I'm so glad I got a chance reach the "top of the mountain," in basketball terms, ten times. The last chance didn't click, but what a great opportunity personally for me to coach such great teams. I have no driving desire to go back and get No. 10.
B&N.com: This is your fourth book. Do you plan to do a fifth?
PJ: I don't have plans to write the fifth book yet. Technically I have done five, as the first one was a photography book by George Kalinsky and myself, in which I contributed a couple of photos and wrote the text about the first championship playoff run by the New York Knicks in 1970, called Take It All.
My favorite book, the one that was most comfortable writing, has been Sacred Hoops. I hope to write something similar somewhere down the line, if all things work together.
