A Fascinating Look at The 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers

The Last Season: A Team in Search of It's Soul by Phil Jackson and Michael Arkush

Review by C. Douglas Baker

Phil Jackson has written a very personal account of the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers basketball season.

Those who follow the National Basketball Association are well aware of the soap opera season of this talent-laden team and its combative stars. Jackson’s account in some ways is a sad statement on the state of professional basketball in the United States and the sad state of professional sports in general.

It can also be seen as a comic and tragic clash of overpaid, selfish individuals that resulted in underachievement, as this talented team did not win another NBA Championship.

The inability of this sad cast of characters to get along and foster teamwork and collegiality instead of backbiting and selfishness led to the breakup of what may be the most talented duo in NBA history—Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

Much of the book is devoted to Jackson’s attempts to meld strong, willful personalities that often did not get along into a team. The season started really in the offseason with the acquisitions of Gary Payton and Karl Malone, two future Hall of Famers who many felt would ensure the Lakers of another NBA Championship.

Then the house of cards started falling. First, Kobe Bryant was accused, and later charged with, rape in Colorado. As a result, result Kobe spent a good deal of the season flying back and forth from Eagle, Colorado to Los Angeles, causing a great deal of distraction for the team.

Then Gary Payton, one of the best point guards in NBA history, finds he can’t adjust to the triangle offense. Worse, Payton, once so highly regarded for his defensive acumen that he attained the nickname “The Glove,” couldn't, or wouldn't, guard anyone.

Then, Karl Malone went down with a knee injury that limited his play throughout most of the season.

And to top it all off, Bryant and O’Neal spent much of the season snipping at each other, often through the press.

Not surprisingly, Jackson spends a lot of time in the book talking about his relationship to his players, notably Kobe Bryant. He describes Bryant as a narcissistic personality with unbelievable talent.

His relationship with Bryant grew so bad that he consulted a psychiatrist during the season. Most of his efforts with Bryant were simply directed at getting him to play within the structure of the triangle offense and within the team instead of as an individual. But his relationship with Bryant grew so bad that he consulted a psychiatrist during the season.

Jackson seems to have a great deal of affinity for O'Neal. He does, however, imply that O’Neal is a bit thin-skinned and,at times, a little soft in his preparation for games and in playing defense. But undoubtedly, he saw O’Neal as the lynch pin in the Lakers championship runs and their prospects to win another.

While Jackson spends time talking about his other players as well—particularly Payton, Malone, and Rick Fox—not surprisingly, most of his time is devoted to discussing Bryant and O’Neal. It does make for fascinating reading, especially when it examines his strategies to get the players to get along and play as a team. Obviously, he ultimately failed in this task in 2003-2004.

That Jackson spends so much time discussing personalities and relationships in the book is not surprising. So much of winning in professional sports is the ability to take individuals of great talent and create a team.

Much of the rest of the book is devoted to basketball strategy, game preparation, and detailed accounts of the Lakers season and playoffs. If you are a basketball fan, this part of the book will be interesting as well.

And Jackson does a great job of intertwining and subtly making clear why the personal interactions between the players and between the players and their coaches is as important as X’s and O’s in winning championships. Winning championships is as much about functioning together as a unit as it is about strategy and talent.

One has to take a first person account such as Jackson’s for what it is: one person’s side of the story.

Intuitively, I find Jackson’s words to be heartfelt and honest. Not only does he blame himself and point out some of his own failings, but his descriptions of his players, particularly Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, have been brought out by other accounts (mainly the media) of their personality and clashes.

And he has, after all, won nine NBA championships.

The Last Season : A Team in Search of Its Soul