Phil Jackson's long goodbye to L.A.
— -- He said goodbye in May of 2011 with a wry smile, not a tear. Whatever emotion Phil Jackson had on the day he officially retired as the Los Angeles Lakers coach had long since been felt. His last words were ones of gratitude, not nostalgia.
"I said what I wanted to say, so I don't want to belabor this at all," Jackson said then to the assembled media at the Lakers' training facility. "Just wanted to come down and thank the L.A. fans. The Laker fans particularly have been generous to me. When I first came here they thanked me for coming to L.A. I hope they thank me for leaving."
Three years have passed since that day, and until he finally signed on to be the new president of the New York Knicks, it never really felt like Jackson had left.
Over the past three years, he's been neither coach nor consultant. His fiancée, Jeanie Buss, is the one still receiving Laker paychecks, not him. But in his absence, Jackson's presence has only grown larger among the Lakers and their fans. By remaining in the shadows, his enormous shadow has hung over the franchise.
People got used to it that way. It was comforting to know Jackson was still there, close by. Just a tweet away. That also made it hard for other things to grow, but it was better than the alternative.
When legendary owner Dr. Jerry Buss passed away last February, Jackson was still the one subsuming that patriarchal role in this very strange, dysfunctional saga. The Lakers and their fans never really had to stare into the abyss in front of them.
Now they do. That it took a full week for Jackson to formally sign on as the Knicks president after word of their serious mutual interest leaked only prolonged the torture for Laker fans.
They don't want to say goodbye. This does not feel good. There is no relief now that it's finally over.
There is a whole lot of anger and desperation and hurt. There will be for a while. Most of it will be directed at executive vice president of player personnel Jim Buss, who was positioned by his father's last will and testament to become the reason there is no room in Lakerland to give Jackson the kind of power and influence he has been promised with the Knicks.
The rest will be scattered into the cosmos.
The fans in New York are wary of Jackson and how much he truly wants to be there. How much will he even live in New York? How much work will he have the appetite for? Being a team president isn't just about making decisions, it's about getting on planes and flying to Iowa to watch a Big 12 game or immersing yourself in advanced analytics. It lacks the soul Jackson is always drawn to.
But Jackson's always done things his own way. For all the talk of Zen and the Triangle offense and the way he's able to manage superstars, his genius comes from his ability to create a closed ecosystem around a team. A world where his values and beliefs rule. A bubble where a team can grow.
He is Zeus. He blocks out the sun and the rain. He blunts the noise and the chaos. Which is exactly what the Knicks need right now. So who cares about scouting in Iowa?
They don't know that yet in New York. People in L.A. do, which is why it's so hard to let him go.
The problem for the Lakers is that they haven't really been living in Phil's world these last few years. They've been living under his shadow, and it's had the opposite effect.
Now we'll see what things really look like, and if anything new can grow.
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