Phil-Speak
Sean Deveney of the Sporting News has published an attempt to translate the language of Phil Jackson so that the true meaning of Big Chief Triangle's words can be discerned.
PHIL SAYS: "It's going to take dedication over the course of the summer to change the face of this team a little bit."
PHIL MEANS: Yikes. We're not very good, and Jerry Buss is going to have to show his dedication through check writing. We need a point guard, a center and a defensive guard off the bench....
PHIL SAYS: "One of the things about our organization has been ... (the media) used to tell me you could hardly wait to get into the locker room because the players used to be ready to tell whatever the last secret was. We're going to try to shut that down a little."
PHIL MEANS: No more Lakers media circus. Maybe having Shaq's big yapper on the East Coast won't be so bad after all....
PHIL SAYS: "The ability to be flexible (defensively), to do more fullcourt press, get into transition basketball, to do more trap and zone are in our favor this time. Those are some of the things I believe in as a coach, and (Shaquille O'Neal) is not the player that you would use that way."
PHIL MEANS: Hey, Shaq was fat, and we weren't going to run with him. This season, this team was next to last in the league in creating turnovers and got killed on fast-break points. That won't happen again.
PHIL SAYS: "We're loaded in the West. ... There were a couple of teams that sat on the outside, like the Clippers, who were very talented. There is a real challenge just to make the playoffs."
PHIL MEANS: God help us if the Clippers beat us out for a playoff spot.
A Detroit article is, surprise surprise, not that complimentary about Big Chief Triangle:
Phil Jackson betrayed confidences by writing a hiss-and-tell book about private conversations he had with his Lakers. In said book, he called Kobe Bryant uncoachable, talked about wanting to trade him because they couldn't co-exist and admitted consulting a specialist on narcissism to deal with him. And now, for $10 million a year, he runs back into Bryant's arms?
This is literally an unwinnable situation.
Jackson is going to stain his legacy by returning to L.A. He certainly won't change anything, not without Shaq or Michael Jordan in tow. The Lakers have salary-cap issues, anchored as they are to the likes of Brian Grant, and they won't be able to get Bryant the Shaq-like player he needs to be a winner again....
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