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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICSJune 10, 2008Phil JacksonLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Three Q. Can you give us your reaction to Jerry Buss missing the first few games of the NBA Finals to play a poker tournament in Vegas? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, I think that you'd have to ask Jerry. That's probably personal and private for him. Q. Were you surprised? COACH PHIL JACKSON: No, I know that he was limiting his flights, flight times for a considerable amount of some time. Vegas is, what, less than an hour? That's fine. Q. At the risk of retracting from the moment at hand, what's your reaction been to the news today that Tim Donaghy is making his allegations about the 2002 series between the Lakers and Sacramento? COACH PHIL JACKSON: You know, I'm a dolt as far as news goes. I don't turn the TV on, so I miss those things. I probably should be atuned to them. But the allegation was that they were extending the series? Q. Yes. COACH PHIL JACKSON: Was that after the fifth game after we had the game stolen away from us after a bad call out of bounds and gave the ball back to Sacramento and they made a three-point shot? There's a lot of things going on in these games and they're suspicious, but I don't want to throw it back to there. Q. Would you except the notion that there were officials that were, quote, NBA company men who were doing this for the sake of ratings, et cetera? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Only us basketball coaches think that. Nobody else can go to that extreme. They referee what they see in front of them. You know, a lot of things have happened in the course of the Tim Donaghy disposition. I think we have to weigh it as it comes out, and we all think that probably referees should be under a separate entity than the NBA entirely. I mean, that's what we'd like to see probably in the NBA. It would just be separate and apart from it. But I don't think that's going to happen. That's just a want and desire in the area of having everything apart from the NBA that can be apart from the NBA. It's just how small government goes. But when it's controlled from that position, we've got the commissioner come on the air last year and make a statement that it's going to be looked into, that there's going to be full disclosure, we have an open area. I think these things are going to be discussed for a little while longer. And at this time I'd just as soon limit it and say let's wait until it all comes out and we'll talk about it afterwards. Q. Curt Schilling of the Red Sox was at Game 2 and he had a seat near your bench and he blogged on his blog, "38 Pitches", he said Kobe was messing with his teammates until the first tip into the third quarter, that teammates were giving Kobe the, "hey, whatever," eye rolls. Just your thoughts on another athlete criticizing Kobe's interaction with his teammates. COACH PHIL JACKSON: One of the things that Kobe does is he's a very -- he's an inspiring captain. You know, I saw that in the tape and I got some comments from people that saw it in the video that he pocketed Radmanovic on the leg after he made like three possessions in a row, rather strange. That's the type of thing that as a coach I'm okay with it. Sometimes Vladdy needs even more than that (laughter). He needs a dose of reality to get him back in where he's got to go. So I think Kobe does a good job on that. After the game he was very vocal with his teammates about let's go back to LA and put it in perspective, win at home and get this thing back here to win on the road. Q. Does it bother you that another athlete who was obviously given that seat by somebody and who was really privy to some private conversation put that on their blog about somebody they've never met? COACH PHIL JACKSON: I've been against that for as long as I've been coaching. Those people don't belong there, somebody is going to get hurt. But that becomes part of what the NBA is about, being close to the action and close to the scene. We have to suffer the consequences because of it. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the fact that you've been in so many of the NBA championships as a coach, Doc Rivers is in his first. What do you remember about your first NBA championship as a coach? And anything surprise you that you've been able to kind of deal with now that you've had so much experience? COACH PHIL JACKSON: I just remember the very first game I coached, they hit a three-point shot with seconds left in the ballgame to put them up by two, or one, I'm not sure what the Lakers won by in that game, and we came back with a game-winning shot that rimmed out, and feeling the disappointment of losing the home court advantage and subsequently ended up winning the rest of those four games that were left. But the idea was it was so devastating to lose such a close game in such a big show like The Finals. You know, those things, after I had gone through a couple of those losses myself, you understand that they -- you have another chance, you get another opportunity, it'll even out. Q. What did you do, in terms of that loss? How did you handle that? What did you tell the team after that first loss? COACH PHIL JACKSON: We had a good shot, gave up a big opportunity at the end of the game and this will even out and we'll get our chance. We did, we won in overtime a game later in that series. But it really ignited our team. It ignited our defense and we became a much better defensive team after that. Q. Tim Donaghy making news again, just really within the hour, do you get any sense, true or not, that when coaches chirp about officiating, that it fuels a mistrust about officiating the league? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Well, I do know it changes things. I can remember a series that the Bulls had against Indiana in a series in which we put Scottie Pippen on Marc Jackson and ultimately denied him access to the court. He just harassed him up the court, and Indiana went on and said he fouled and the consequence was that Scottie had three fouls and played six minutes in the first half of the next game. Those are the things that change, that there can be that kind of swing. But for the most part, what we want is just good balance. We want just even balance. When you're on the road, you want a good road game. You want something that's an even balance. When you're at home, you want a good game. You want a solid game. You don't want it to go one way or the other, that's all, even calls. I guess the series that really changed when you looked at it was maybe the Dallas-Miami series when all of a sudden Wade ended up with 25, 24, 23 free throws in the last game of the series, something like that. That was a turn of events where suddenly he was going to the line on every type of a bump or a hit, and I think that was kind of an image twist or an illusion twist that happened for the best of the Miami Heat in that series. That's the last one I can remember. Q. I believe you're getting paid $10 million for moments like this -- COACH PHIL JACKSON: How would you even know that stuff? You're not the IRS. Q. Is it more than that? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Do I ask you private information about you? Q. I don't make $10 million but should. COACH PHIL JACKSON: Should not. Q. Let's not get into an argument. Isn't this supposed to be your time to make adjustments and show us some magic? COACH PHIL JACKSON: You're right. Q. Does it start tonight? COACH PHIL JACKSON: We'll see what happens. Q. And if it doesn't, then can we come after you? COACH PHIL JACKSON: You can ask for a rebate (laughter). Q. I don't make $10 million, either. With Lamar's problems the last couple days, have you felt the need -- I know you've shepherded him in the past, have you felt the need to talk to him a little bit the last day or two? COACH PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, I've given him a little bit of information, you know, some video work to do and to think about and some support basically. No doubt about it. We need Lamar to play the type of game he can give us, a 10-, 12-rebound game and six or eight assists. End of FastScripts |
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