Roland LazenbyMindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey

Fantastic story about PHIL JACKSON's coaching career and also about building his winning philosophy, His attitude towards players, conflict with Jerry Krause, relationship with MJ, thinking about motivation and also very well told parts concerned His childhood and basketball player career.

Lazenby's account of the story is awesome ! Backed by countless interviews from players, coaches, and more, it sort of takes you into the changing rooms, practice sessions, buses, flights and boardroom arguments through Phil Jackson's illustrious career ! It also gave me more reasons to love and 'not to love' MJ, Shaq, Kobe and the 3 Jerry's (Buss, Reinsdorf and Krause). You get to see how instrumental Phil Jackson was in the Bulls' 6 championships, and the Lakers' 2000 championship. If you didn't respect him already....this book will be a game-changer !Though it didn't meet my expectations with the actual mindgames, it left me very satisfied. I got to see how much effort, skill and will power is required to drive to the title; the effects of the 'supporting cast' (how MJ and Scottie didn't do it alone), and how 'contagious' confidence is, especially in team sports. If there's one thing I'd ask....is to have a new edition, detailing the Zen Masters complete Lakers experience...Kobe, Pau...the main reasons behind the trade (Artest for Ariza)...and the Dallas sweep !

Having always been intrigued by Phil Jackson as a coach and a person, I was thrilled to see that an account of his interesting career and life had been published. Being a coach myself, I had always wanted to find how this living legend's mind works and maybe try to apply some of his ideas/concepts to my coaching. That was the reason that I had devoured "Sacred Hoops" as soon as it came out back in 95-96.I was also excited to see "the value" that the book offers: 400 pages..."Not bad" I thought, and I went ahead and ordered the book right away!The content of the book did not disappoint me one bit. It is nicely structured (chronologically) and it gives quite an insight and quite a few details of Jackson's life. Usually a slow reader, I breezed through this nicely written piece of work by Lazenby. I especially enjoyed the quotes from interviews and informal discussions that either Jackson himself or people he was associated with had given in the past. I also really liked the fact that the book includes Jackson's first season in LA. I think this adds tremendous value to the book: it makes its publishing a lot more timely and therefore more appealing.My only couple of concerns with this publication are the following: a) The book seems to repeat itself at times mentioning the same thing over and over maybe from a different perspective but the same information/idea none-the-less. I apologize for not having a good example of this handy, but I wasn't taking notes while I was reading... b) The book is a little too "superficial" for my taste. Jackson is such a complicated and unique person and I think this book makes little or no attempt to try and "decipher" him. I am not sure, however, that that was even the intent of the author to begin with. Maybe all Lazenby wanted to do was give an account of Jackson's life and not really try to judge/critique his coaching techniques or philosophies. Regardless, I felt that since the author seems to "know" Jackson so well, he should have tried to offer an opinion on some of the controversial decisions in his personal or professional life.Overall, I'd say that anyone interested in Jackson should get this book. Lazenby gives you an objective account of Jackson's life (the good AND the bad; unlike many autobiographies...) and one will have a great time reading through the stories and looking at the pictures.Should a basketball (or other) coach get the book though in order to maybe "gain some coaching knowledge"? I wouldn't think so...

A brief but interesting review of the championship teams that Phil Jackson has coached and developed over the time in the NBA.

This is a very interesting account of Phil Jackson's use of zen philosophy on the court. He's a riveting character and the book does a great job of fleshing him out. The behind the scenes details about the Bulls to are an added bonus as well.