Phil Jackson Looks to Silence His Critics, Especially Red Auerbach

The NBA Finals are under way, and as ABC gets ready to flood us with feature stories on Kobe’s drive for a fourth title, Dwight Howard’s coming out party, and Pau Gasol’s favorite L.A. nightclubs, there’s one glaring storyline that hasn’t received much attention in the playoffs.

Phil Jackson’s attempt to break his tie with a basketball legend. Celtics great, the late Red Auerbach.

Winning nine championships in 12 years (Didn’t coach in the 1998-99 strike-shortened season), it's safe to say Jackson has cemented his legacy as one of the best, if not the greatest, NBA coaches of all time. And while a 10th ring would be nice, Jackson wants to end his “feud” with Auerbach once and for all.

Long retired from the sideline since the days of Bill Russell, Auerbach remained active with the Boston Celtics organization. Over the years, his legend grew, the nine championships in 11 years, the Hall of Fame players he guided to all those rings and the cigars that became just as synonymous with the former coach as championship banners were in Boston Garden. There wasn't a coach in the league close to reaching his championship record.

And then came Jackson.

Entering the league’s coaching ranks in 1989, coming from the now defunct CBA, Jackson would lead the Chicago Bulls to their first championship in just his second season. He went on to lead the Bulls to six championships in eight years, with the last coming in 1998.

Jackson’s time in Chicago didn’t end in the storybook fashion of the 1998 NBA Finals. Michael Jordan retired, for a second time, a disgruntled Scottie Pippen was traded to the Houston Rockets, and Jackson himself was forced out by The Jerrys (Krause and Reinsdorf) for Tim Floyd.

He would retire from coaching, but he was eventually lured out of retirement to guide a very talented Lakers squad that featured Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. He would lead the Lakers to three-straight championships in his first three years.

At this point, Jackson has nine rings. Tied with Red. And that’s when comments started flying.

“Three titles in a row don’t constitute a dynasty.”

“He had Michael Jordan and Shaq.”

Both comments are from Auerbach in his attempt to downplay Jackson’s assault on his record. Some dismissed his comments as those from a cantankerous old man, set in his ways wanting to protect his legacy, but it’s hard to imagine they didn’t get under Jackson’s skin. And while numbers don’t lie, the debate of which coach was better is not so black and white.

Auerbach coached the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1966, winning his nine championships, including eight in a row. But, and this is a big “but," he coached in a time before free agency and in an NBA that consisted of only 10 teams when he retired in 1966.

Jackson, on the other hand, had to deal with constant rule changes, players constantly changing teams through free agency, and overpaid players constantly whining about minutes.

A loss in 2004 to the Detroit Pistons would be Jackson’s first loss in the NBA Finals. It was a miracle Jackson got that team as far as he did with the Kobe/Shaq feud coming to a head.

Shaq would be shipped to Miami and Jackson would retire again, and he would subsequently write a book about his time in L.A.

Following a tumultuous year under Rudy Tomjanovich ,which saw the Lakers winning only 38 games, Jackson came out of retirement yet again.

In his third year back, after first-round exits the two previous seasons, he led the Lakers back to the Finals against, ironically, the Boston Celtics. L.A. would lose in six games to Boston, leaving Auerbach’s record safe for another season and Jackson stuck on nine after his second Finals defeat.

Two different eras, two different coaches and both great in their own right. Neither coach better than the other one and both making the most out of the players.

But let’s be honest, the cupboard wasn’t exactly empty for either coach. When Jackson took over Chicago, he had a nucleus of Jordan, Pippen, and Horace Grant. He later took over a stacked Lakers team that featured O’Neal and Bryant. But Auerbach didn’t exactly take over a JV team either, coaching the likes of Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek , K.C. and Sam Jones just to name a few, all who are in the Hall of Fame.

But, anyone who’s ever followed sports should know that talent alone does not constitute championships (see: the early 1990s Seattle SuperSonics and the last two Denver Nuggets teams).

Over the years, the jabs kept coming, with neither man going too far over the line in an attempt to maintain a mutual respect for one another.

But like the saying goes, “There’s truth in every joke.”

Both men were no doubt using their playful barbs as a way to express their true feelings for one other.

Auerbach died in 2006, just before the NBA season began. His championship banners will forever hang in the “New Garden.” His name will forever be associated with the winningest franchise in NBA history. His ghost, cigar smoke and all, is still felt throughout a league he helped revolutionize.

Over the next two weeks, Jackson will look to break his tie with Auerbach and win number 10, putting him alone atop the coaching pantheon.

But when he leads his team on the court against Orlando, he’ll not only be trying to find a way to beat the Magic, he’ll try and quiet his critics, most of all the one who’s no longer with us.