Jackson’s Confidence, Poise Rub Off on Team

I don’t know Phil Jackson, other than maybe to have said hello and shaken his hand once or twice. I do know that the more I watch and the closer I look, the more I like.

Jackson is a poker player holding a royal flush. When you have one in your hand--and he has one in his hand every time that team takes the floor--you play things close to the vest. You don’t need to show any signs of what you have, because you know you have a winner. He has a terrific team, and the two best players in the game today, and he is smart enough not to mess with it.

When you have the talent, don’t frustrate it. Encourage it. Embrace it.

The calm, poise and composure the Lakers have come from the bench. You want the emotion where it belongs, with the players, out on the floor. It isn’t only Jackson on the bench, either. Take a look over there sometime and check out the assistants. My accountant gets more emotional than Frank Hamblen.

From a fellow coach’s standpoint, I see things that really tell a tale. One of the biggest for me is that all five Laker players Jackson has on the floor play defense. Not three or four. All five.

I don’t know what this Zen Master stuff is all about, but if you watch closely, you’ll see a master psychologist at work. Remember the technical foul he got the other night in Game 2? That was a masterful sympathy foul. Most of the time, Jackson is good at just leaving the refs alone, so that when he does weigh in, and he does get a technical, it is one with impact. The one he got in Sacramento was his way of standing up and saying to Shaq, “Hey, big guy. I understand what a beating you are taking and I don’t think it’s fair either, and I support you.”

He’s really good with that stuff, and he seems to be smart about the refs. You aren’t going to get anywhere long-term by badgering them. Plus, Jackson is a big guy. He understands officiating dynamics. When was the last time you saw a ref that was a former center or power forward? They’re all former fireplug point guards. So, even though they don’t do it consciously or maliciously, they believe, in the deep recesses of their minds, that a guy like Shaq is a giant and should expect some of the beating he gets. They’d never admit that, probably even to themselves, but he’s held to a different standard because he is so big and so good. It’s like, you can see their minds turning over, saying, “Hey, that’s not a foul. He’s a 350-pound giant.”

Jackson knows he can’t change that. He probably felt some of the same stuff when he played. But he knows how to occasionally let Shaq know that he knows.

I read the other day about Shaq clipping some item out of the paper about Vlade Divac and pinning it up in his locker. Think about that. That’s the kind of stuff Little League kids in Pomona do, but here is a 30-year-old multimillionaire wanting so badly to keep himself focused to kick Vlade’s butt that he is using kids’ motivational stuff. And yet, he feels comfortable doing it, because his coach lets him be whatever he wants to be. I thought that was impressive, and I told some of my team about that.

And how about the article in The Times the other day by J.A. Adande on how Mitch Richmond sits on the bench all the time and, despite having the pride and ego of a one-time NBA star, still talks nothing but team.

On other teams, a guy like that would be a cancer. Kobe Bryant called him the ultimate professional.

All this stuff lands on Jackson, and none of it shows directly in the box score.

I’ve always said that there are two things that make great players truly great. They have a love of who they are fighting for and a hate of who they are fighting against.

Maybe there’s a third: a leader who makes them understand that.

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Rick Majerus, Utah basketball coach, will be The Times’ guest analyst for the rest of the playoffs. Majerus, the fourth-winningest active coach in major college basketball, will begin his 14th season at Utah this fall.