Phil Jackson: The NBA's Most...Unwanted?

Jackson captured 6 rings in Chicago

News broke about a week ago that Phil Jackson was "itching to return to the NBA". It was not exactly hard to believe after the urgency he approached the vacant Lakers job after Mike Brown was fired early on in the season. Now, any human being that knows who Phil Jackson is and knows of his history would have to assume that Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss would have skipped the interviews and hired Phil Jackson as soon as Mike Brown emptied his locker. Yet in a move that confused and even angered the basketball world, the front office of the Lakers hired the underachieving and overrated Mike D'Antoni.

I still have not gotten over that move. Yes I understand that with Steve Nash at the point you have someone who has run the offense and is a Hall of Famer to say the least. The front office also said that D'Antoni was a better "fit" for this particular Lakers squad. How? How does that make sense when you have three starters in Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace, and, obviously, Kobe Bryant who have run Jackson's triangle offense and have won championships under him? Sure the point guard is the captain of the offense and controls the show, especially with such a brilliant play-maker and leader like Nash in that role, but why would you choose to have one player who knows the offense rather than three?

D'Antoni's first year has not been one to remember

So right off the bat the Lakers made a mistake just by misjudging their personnel on the floor. That doesn't even come close to the mistake the Lakers made in choosing the personnel they would have on the bench. These two coaches could not be any different. Phil Jackson is perhaps the greatest coach of all time and his eleven championship rings speak for themselves. He knows how to handle egos as well as having multiple Hall of Fame players on the floor at the same time. D'Antoni on the other hand couldn't have any success with what should have been a pretty successful Suns squad not to mention a contending Knicks team. Yet D'Antoni was pushed aside in both jobs and proved he couldn't live up to the expectations of a large market team like New York.

However, what's done is done and D'Antoni is in charge of what has been a disappointing and in some ways embarrassing Lakers team. Injuries are a factor, yes, but the bottom line is when Pau Gasol was out D'Antoni still had three future Hall of Famers on the floor. I can't help but think Phil Jackson would have whipped this team into shape and made them a top three team in the West like they should have been.

Fast forward to today with Phil Jackson itching to return as a coach. Cleveland, though not as appealing as coaching in Chicago or LA, is a team on the rise with a star point guard in Kyrie Irving and the possibility of LeBron James returning seems likely. The obvious choice is Phil Jackson, right? Guess not, the Cavaliers brought Mike Brown back in place of Byron Scott. I just don't understand the decision. Yes Mike Brown had success with the Cavaliers. Yes he coached them to a Finals appearance in 2008. The bottom line is, however, that he is not Phil Jackson. His career has not been full of success like Phil Jackson's. He does not win like Phil Jackson. Mike Brown is not Phil Jackson.

Will Brown and LeBron be reunited in Cleveland?

It doesn't make sense to leave Phil Jackson out in the cold. Two teams have now turned him down in favor of mediocre coaches. The Lakers could be in a much better spot than they are and the Cavaliers future could look a little brighter if they had Jackson on the sidelines. I'm a fan of Phil Jackson and the decisions made by the two clubs that turned him down will forever confuse me. The Cavaliers stated they thought Jackson would "not be interested in the job" and stopped pursuing him. The offer could have at least been put on the table for Jackson to take or leave rather than just writing him off from the start due to a hunch or something a source had said. To me, they should have at least confronted Jackson and had him tell the organization to their faces that he was not interested. With that being said, what has the world come to when Hall of Fame coaches with eleven rings are turned down for coaches that combine to have no rings?