LA Lakers champs again!

Congrats to the Los Angeles Lakers on their 15th NBA championship. This is head coach Phil Jackson’s 10th and guard Kobe Bryant’s 4th. This is Kobe’s first without star center Shaquille O’Neal so I guess it’s safe to say there will be no freestyle raps this year about how O’Neal’s ‘ass tastes.’ I personally wasn’t rootin for them. I wanted my Cavs to win (I really wanted my Celtics but once Kevin Garnett was injured, I knew they didn’t have a chance). Orlando man handled the Cavs and I thought they woulda put up more of a fight than they did. I mean they played alright but they just couldn’t close out games which is a damn shame. While I personally don’t like Phil Jackson (I hold him responsible for ruining my chances of seein Jordan play due to Jackson’s half assed retirement), I completely respect him as a coach and think he is one of the greatest if not the greatest coach ever. A lot of people (and even me at one point) claim that Jackson always has great talent to work with and never has to bring a mediocre team to greatness. But I digress (did I use ‘digress’ right? I hope lol). I think it’s because of Phil Jackson’s greatness as a coach that he brings home the championship. There are a lot of great players and teams who never win the ‘Chip’. If the Cavs had Phil Jackson, they woulda won this year for sure (maybe last year). Some people think that basketball is a game of pure skill and the more skilled you are the better your chances of winning. And I would say that is 100% right for what happens ON the court. But you have to also understand that with anything you do in life, it’s 70% heart 30% skill. If you don’t have the drive to be the best and the determination, you’ll never hone on your skills and improve. You’ll never learn how to take accountability for your losses and you won’t have the motivation to pick yourself up and work even harder. That’s what Phil Jackson does for his team. He builds their hearts. He also works on their basketball IQ. How many times did you see a Laker foul a shooter? They played good defense on the perimeter but made sure to keep their hands up when face up out of the paint. Then look at the Cavs and Magic, constantly fouling shooters at the three point arc. If Jackson was coaching the Cavs, the Magic wouldn’t have won with the pick and roll offense. He woulda figured out a way to put an end to that by game 3. Mike Brown allowed his Cavs to be beat up for 6 games against the pick and roll. Jackson has always been the “everybody on this team will contribute” kinda coach, but one season (I think after Shaq’s departure) he tried the LA Kobe’s set up and it failed. Then he went back to his old style of makin everyone a contributor. I’m pretty sure that if Mike Brown made everyone on his team contribute LeBron woulda had an easier time winning games. Anyways, enough about the damn Lakers…I just wanna get my parade on!