At New Yorker Festival with Phil Jackson (Buss/Dolan/LSD talk)

spflakers

Sunday afternoon I went to a Q&A with Phil Jackson at the New Yorker Festival. The moderator was Ben McGrath, who wrote the really good Kobe piece earlier this year.

(Sidebar to New Yorkers on LG: If you get a chance next year, try and get to some panels at the festival. I've gone 5 years and haven't had a disappointing panel, other than getting annoyed with Janet Malcolm. But I've seen everything from Paul Giamatti to Ian Frazier to Michael Chabon to Robert Towne to Christoph Walz.)

So, Phil. God I love this man.

Just his presence makes you feel, yeah, this guy knows what he's doing. It's arrogance, sure, and yeah, sometimes he doesn't know what he's doing (trading Kobe...), but the man has an aura. He wanders out, all legs and arms, wider than he once was, slow, but always in control. He did not, however, have the throne for this talk.

It was about 75 minutes with McGrath, then questions from audience.

First question: About Phil's LSD use, which I think caught him by surprise. He's said before he thought he was blackballed because of that years ago so it's probably not something he likes talking about. But he said how much it opened up his mind to different possibilities. Instead of narrow view, saw things in 360 degrees. Said, no, he would not suggest it to Carmelo.

The headline stuff he said, which might pop up on LG elsewhere, was saying Jim Buss "vaulted into his position through his inheritance." And then said something like Jim is still figuring things out as he goes. Then added that would be about all he'd say.

Spoke about Dolan. McGrath said, "humanize" him for him (McGrath was really good; asked really good questions, not softball stuff). Phil paused, with the timing of an actor, took a swig of water, looked at the crowd and was like, "Okay." He said Dolan's had his life "foisted" upon him as far as having to take control of Cablevision and what he really wants to do is be a musician. Said Dolan had to meddle because of some situations with previous regimes with the Knicks but he's hoping he can make it so all Dolan has to worry about is his music and and the music world and not worry about basketball. It was a little shot, but not delivered in a mean way, since he is still his boss after all.

Talked about how much he'd help Fisher out while Fisher also develops his own coaching identity. Said they're using analytitcs, etc, all that, but they also have a trainer for mindfulness, and that taking time to think is still important for the players. Told a cool story about taking Fsiher to see Tex Winter in Kansas as kind of a passing the torch type thing, getting some old school mojo working.

Was asked about players who thrived in Triangle who you wouldn't expect and those who struggled. Mentioned Fish and Fox, Harper. For struggles, did not want to name names but said there were some "Hall of Fame" players who struggled with it and McGrath said, "Well, we could figure out the Hall of Famers you had and figure out who you're talking about." The Glove, I'm guessing.

Talked about if any players are intellectuals in the league. Talked about Pau, being one of his favorite players and a guy who's into reading, etc. But the first name he mentioned as someone who's into the intellectual side of things? Andrew Bynum.

Spike Lee apparently made an hourlong movie about the Triangle, like a training film. He got big laughs by saying something like, "As well all know Spike is an avid Knicks fan...who knows nothing about basketball."

Phil likes reading Grantland on basketball. And Sam Amick.

I did ask a little sort of Lakers repeated question. Anyone remember Game 7 against Portland, when he said, "Forget Shaq." That's always been one of my favorite Phil moments (like, "Ruuuun"). I remember Walton and Snapper were talking about what a disgrace it was Shaq wasn't getting the ball, and the offense was horrific. And Phil instead says, Forget Shaq, meaning don't force it in, let it come. And the rest was history. So I asked if he always had that sort of ability as a coach to go against the grain or if that comes when you have the sledgehammer of six rings behind you. Could he have said something like that with the early Bulls or CBA? And he told cool little tale of his CBA days and in a playoff game benching the best player for the final 7 or 8 minutes of the game because the guy couldn't guard his opponent; so basically he always felt comfortable doing what he wanted.

Anyway, there was more obviously but that was some of the stuff that stood out.