Goliath Awaits! Phil Jackson and The L.A. Lakers Are Now David
As the news was breaking Phil Jackson must have been shaking his head. It probably wasn't side to side.
Every coach dreams of immortality, a chance to be remembered by the next generation of fans. The night LeBron mouthed the words, “South Beach” a reverberation was felt around the league and an opportunity was created that went unnoticed by the scribes the next morning.
Phil Jackson lauded by many and questioned by others, finally had a Goliath to slay. A Goliath of already onerous proportions yet one that would only grow larger over the next couple of months and coming season. An adversary, that anyone seeking immortality, could only imagine in their own dreams.
Gifted and Cursed with some of history's most talented basketball talents, Phil Jackson has won, won some more and won again. The only caveat and a small one at that, has been his association with Michael, Scotty, Shaquille and Kobe. Instead of competing against Goliath, Phil had Goliath on his bench.
That all changed with just two words, “South Beach”!
As a student of the “Art of Coaching” , I can only guess that Phil must have reached over, grabbed his game folder and started to scribble notes. The smirk, we have so often seen, as he makes preemptive strikes against his opponents in the press, must have had an even more definable nature to it. Finally, “I have MY Goliath to slay!” . This is how we will do it.
Goliath becomes David on the Laker bench next season. The stones so critical to David are in his sling and around him. Someone speaks to David and reminds him Goliath can fall. Someone tells David this is how it will happen. David believes. This time it's Phil in David's ear.
Slay it he will and in the process Phil Jackson will be entrenched as the Greatest Coach in the history of the NBA. No longer will an asterisk or shrug be included when a scribe mentions that notion.
Forever, it will be indelibly noted in the annals of the NBA, that Phil Jackson found his Goliath and slayed him.
I think that head shake was probably, up and down!
