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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICSJune 5, 2008Phil JacksonBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game One Q. After the San Antonio series, you talked about the pain of losing the Conference Finals in 2004; that was the first time you experienced that. Can you go a little more in depth about that, about the novelty and maybe the pain of that experience at that time? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Hmm, it's hard to do that at the start of this series, but I'll attempt. We set that up by, I thought, not completing the series against Minnesota as well as we probably should have. We had two injuries that happened during that series that kind of changed our fortunes: Malone and Fish had both gotten injured. Fish was able to come back and play somewhat limited in that Detroit series. But without Karl being effective, we were short-handed at power forward and it seemed like we kept trying to stick a finger in the dam and water kept coming over the top, and we never could figure a way to kind of slow them down. It was kind of a frustrating feeling. Q. How does that change your approach this time? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Well, we have a little healthier team obviously and a little more depth. Now that we have a 15-man roster that can be rotated from game to game, I think we're much better supplied. At that time you had to name 12 and then you were set for the playoffs. So this new advent of more players on the roster, I think, does give you some leeway in case of injury. Q. Over the course of the times that you've brought teams into The Finals, what have you developed as sort of the day one regimen, like today? How do you fill a day like today for guys who are chomping at the bit to play? COACH PHIL JACKSON: We just tried to do a little bit longer shootaround, a little bit longer activity for them so there wouldn't be such a long afternoon between our shooting time and the game at 7:00. The five hours between that gets kind of long, so we tried to fill that up a little bit. Q. In terms of the message you try to deliver on this particular day, has it changed from what you've been doing for the last six days, seven days? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, we talked a little bit about being prepared, the preparedness of a ball player, that you can't be prepped for exactly how a team is going to play until you're actually on the court against them. So you may be behind but that doesn't limit our energy or effectiveness as a reacting team. Q. Your team, a lot of the young guys have been through a lot of firsts already, first Conference Finals and everything else, and now this stage. How do you think they're handling that, the emotion of that and the hype of that? Is there any last thing you tell them to try to keep them calm going into this? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Mostly just trying to give them a schedule of events. Introductions are going to be similar to a type of All-Star Game type of thing. They're going to be out there and then going to have to reset themselves for that and have a kind of a warm-up period. Those things can't delay their focus at all. They still have to be really focused on what they have to do. We tried to talk about that. But I've always been underplaying, perhaps is the best word, their ability. They've always surprised me with their ability to get ready. Q. Last time you were in The Finals, it was a rare loss, and then obviously you took some time off. Does it give you a greater sense of where you're at again? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, it gave me a sense that we don't want to go through that same process again (laughter); it was painful. We always talked about how special it was. I was on a team once that wasn't able to finish as a player, and I can relay that information to teams I've coached before about how special it is to have this chance and to take advantage of it. So we really talk about that. Getting here is half the journey. The other half of the journey is winning this last series. Q. I hope you haven't been asked this yet: Is this the first time you've coached against Boston in the playoffs? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Yes. Q. Knowing what you knew about this franchise as a player, is that surprising to you, that you've never crossed paths with them from what they used to be to what they became? COACH PHIL JACKSON: You know, I was just at the cusp of the rise of the Bulls and the demise of the Celtics teams that were the great teams of the '80s. I was associated with the Bulls as an assistant coach and as a head coach, and Detroit was coming off their second -- or into their second championship season. Yeah, it's 20-something years almost now, and not to have faced them is really an interesting thing, as dynamic as this franchise has been. End of FastScripts |
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