Phil Jackson the greatest coach ever?

Has Phil surpassed Red?

With the Lakers winning their 15th championship in franchise history coach Phil Jackson won his 10th career title setting not only NBA record for most titles by a coach but in any sport.  Jackson passed the late Red Auerbach, who won 9 titles with the Celtics in the 50’s and 60’s including an unprecedented eight in a row, a feet that will never be repeated.

Now the question becomes whether Phil is the greatest coach of all time.  Going on winning alone, which is the most important thing when you boil it all down, Phil has him beat but only by one title.  Phil has gotten some criticism because he always had the best talent.  Yes he did have MJ, Shaq, and Kobe on all of his title teams but Auerbach had Russell on everyone single one of his title teams.

Both Jackson and Auerbach were great managers of talent.  It’s not always the easiest thing to win when you have the best players.  You have to manage all of the star players and keep them in check and you always have a target on your back.  But they both managed to keep their respective teams together and lead them to championships especially Phil who managed to keep Shaq and Kobe happy enough together en route to three championships and also control Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen in Chicago.

Phil won his ten championships with two different teams (Lakers, Bulls).  Even though he had great players on both teams it still much harder to win with two different teams than to do it with just one.  Also if the whole MJ retirement fiasco never happened we would likely not even be having this argument as Phil and the Bulls would have more than likely won in 94 and 95 which would have gave Phil eight in a row matching Red’s streak.  The Bulls still advanced to the conference semifinals both seasons without Jordan but could have had an eight peat instead of the two three peats.

Phil celebrating his 10th championship

Russell was every bit as dominant back in the day as MJ was recently and the competition was not near the level it is today.  When Auerbach won his titles there were either eight or nine teams in the league and almost every time the Celtics only had to win two rounds in the playoffs to win the title.  When Jackson won there were at least 27 other teams in the league every season and four rounds in the playoffs.  Now you tell me which path seems harder.

I also saw a stat today about Bill Russell that stunned me.  In his career he played in 21 win or go home games including college, the pros, and the Olympics and his record in all of those games was 21-0.  I was shocked when I heard it and thought I misheard but I did not.  It certainly helps your chances when you have a player like your team.

I’m not trying to diminish what Red Auerbach accomplished.  Winning eight consecutive is a remarkable accomplishment.  All I’m saying is that Phil accomplishments in this era of basketball which includes free agency you have to give him the nod as the greatest coach of all time.