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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SPURS v LAKERS

May 29, 2008

Phil Jackson

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Five

Q. Coach, your reaction to the league saying that the foul should have been called on Derek Fisher at the end of Game 4?
COACH JACKSON: Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Q. Something like that.
COACH JACKSON: If I had only ...
It is a little surprising. The league usually doesn't get themselves involved in that. Of course, I have been at the end of a lot of different types of things like that that have happened, so I was kind of surprised.
But we can't give it back and we'll take the win and move on.

Q. The Hugh Hollins call in New York, whatever it was, Game 5, Game 6, did anybody from the league ever give you any satisfaction on that?
COACH JACKSON: Well, as you know, the head of the referees at that time mentioned the fact that that should have been called. Hugh Hollins should have called that foul. Of course, Mr. Garretson, God rest his soul, didn't win any favors with Hugh Hollins by saying that.
He and I are great friends to this day. (Smiling).

Q. Thoughts concerning the Doug Collins story -- it is not official, but it sounds like.
COACH JACKSON: I have no reaction to that. Doug just told me he was never going to coach again, until I see him in about another ten minutes, I won't comment on that.

Q. Can we find you after those ten minutes and then get a comment from you?
COACH JACKSON: I didn't hear the start of what you said.

Q. Can we find you after you talk to Doug?
COACH JACKSON: I thought I was going to be fined for talking to Doug (smiling).

Q. The general perception is that the NBA's probably the toughest sport to officiate. Any comments just in general about that, about how hard it is to officiate?
COACH JACKSON: I'm sure football officials are going to -- you know, would be weighing in on that. They are not professionals. That's just a weekend job for them.
But we have to tell our young players, you are going to get fouled on almost every play in the NBA. If you can't play through fouling, you know, you are not going to make it in this game because that's the way the game is, especially at this time of the year.
The referees have to make a judgment as to what constitutes a worthwhile foul and what constitutes just a ticky-tack foul.
And I take my hat off to those guys. They are doing the best they can do, and it is almost an impossible game to officiate. It is too much contact. It is not a contact sport, as we know.
Everything has gotten away from us in the last 10 to 15 years with carrying the ball, discontinued dribble, which they can't call anymore, the advent of European players brought a three step into what used to be two steps to take off and it goes on and on, and the evolvement of the game constitutes always catching up.
There is always situations where the referees have to catch up to the game and it makes it really an impossible job for them. But they're confident and these guys want to do it, and I'm glad someone is willing to do it. I certainly wouldn't want to do it.

Q. What do you tell your team before an elimination game where you can get rid of the NBA champions of last year?
COACH JACKSON: Well, we just -- we don't say anything. We have a videotape that says it for us. And it is just about always be closing. It is about a movie that's about ten years old. And it's about a fact that you've always got to take advantage of the situation that's right in front of you. And it's the way it is in this game.
You have to take advantage of the immediacy right now.

Q. What film is that?
COACH JACKSON: I don't know the name of it.

Q. Glengarry Glen Ross?
COACH JACKSON: Yes, that's it.

Q. Alec Baldwin?
COACH JACKSON: Yes. He has a pair of brass balls that he holds up (smiling).

Q. Obviously winning a championship, very difficult, winning multiple championships, tough. Is there anything extra gratifying about the repeats that you've had in your careers? Is repeating that much harder and that much more gratifying as a result?
COACH JACKSON: Well, as we know, there's 25 years or more between repeat NBA championships in the '70s and into the late '80s. And finally the Lakers were able to break through it and win multiple championships and Detroit repeated that.
And that was really quite a rare feat at that time. And it is a rare thing to be able to do. In our sister sport or brother sport over there, the NHL hockey, the last five championships -- champion teams have not even made it through the first round or to the first round in hockey.
So it tells you the amount of strain and stress that usually goes into a team to win. And the fact that you play until the middle of June, into the summer, and then you have a two-short-month recovery rate, it takes its toll on players. It takes a deep toll on the physical nature of these players.
Some of our players that played in the '90s with the Chicago Bulls teams, those six championship teams, played hundreds of games. Like, three or four extra seasons, two or three extra seasons, I should say, in their careers, simply in play-off games and those games are twice as tough. I mean, maybe even three times as difficult.
So, you know, that's one of the reasons why repeating is so difficult. And attention and the fact that there's usually not enough credit to go around when you win. Everybody wants credit, not enough credit to go around sometimes.

Q. Phil, there was also a story today that the NBA is going to fine players for flopping next year. How do you feel about that?
COACH JACKSON: Difficult. That's going to be difficult, but obviously the referees won't be doing it, I hear. There will be a silent observer who will make that -- you know, I think the notification that it's something the league doesn't want is good.
I think it's something that, you know, whenever you set down rules, parameters, then things have to be backed off. Remember, we had a situation where there was no reaction of referees a couple years ago, and we had to back off of that as a league because it is just too emotional a game and people are reacting all the time to calls.
Hopefully, if we do go that way in the NBA, then we're able to force what we're trying to do and I think the difficulty is always trying to enforce it.

Q. Given the fact there are so many players, it is part of the game to exaggerate contact now. How are they going to do this?
COACH JACKSON: You know, the simple idea is -- it is shoulder and chest, regardless whether the player is moving, his feet is in position, it is shoulder and chest. And it has got to be a square. And those things have to be judged. I think they have to be judged by videotape. Somebody can't sit there and watch it, because these players are too good.
They're very capable of doing it. Coaches teach it. There have been guys specifically in this league that have taught how to do it. Dick Harter's one of the ones that was a great defensive teacher. It becomes a defensive philosophy.
I think it will have to be looked at very carefully.

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