Poll: Best Coach

[BlackHawkDown]

Not on List George Karl, I can only have 10 so I left him off. Plus I hate Karl so I was more than happyu to leave him off

Also missing is Alvin Gentry.

Please attach why you picked your coach. If Other name coach.

I will save some of you the trouble,

[Admin]

[DJ_Money]

Say what you will about the players that he has coached...but 9 titles is 9 titles, period.

[KB21]

Everyone wants to mention the players that Phil has had to work with.

Well, why couldn't Del Harris win with those same players in LA? Why couldn't Doug Collins win with Jordan, Pippen, and Grant in Chicago?

Phil Jackson is the difference.

The guy won as a head coach in the CBA. He's won big time as a head coach in the NBA.

He's the best at handling the multiple personalities that players have, a brilliant tactician, and a guy who does a great job of getting his team focused on the task at hand. He's a coach that doesn't let his team get too high or too low.

Phil is the best, followed by Larry Brown, IMO.

[Guest]

It's a hard topic to discuss due to the many aspects of coaching in the NBA. Phil is by far the best at connecting with his players, motivating the, not micromanaging, and getting professional athletes to believe in him, his system (and Tex's), and putting everything aside to win games and titles.

People complain that Phil recruits semi-vet players that buy into his system to compliment his stars...well he does. That's how he wants to do it. Say what you will, but his offense is one of the few actual systems in the NBA.

No, Phil isn't the best coach in terms of substituting on the fly or "developing" players...but then again, he doesn't feel that he should need to develope much in the NBA - these guys are already "professional players." The reason he doesn't play rookies much.

To a certain extent I think it depends on what you want from your coach as required by the makeup of your team....

[beav]

I voted for larry brown... he takes horrible teams and makes them playoff teams... anyone remember how bad the 76ers were the year before he arrived? also iverson was a good player but jumped two notches under his tutelage... now after 3 years his magic tends to wear off the players get tired of him.... but if I were a crap team and wanted to be in the playoffs no doubt he is the first that I would hire...

[BlackHawkDown]

This where I disagree. Collins took MJ/Pippen/Grant to the East Finals in 89 where they lost to the champion pistons. This was the Bulls breakout year even though they were a six seed they beat the and Cavs/Bucks. But Doug got fired that summer, They added 3 first round picks including Armstrong and Stacey King and beat the Pistons with Phil at the helm. Now My problem is did they blossum or did Phil push them over. I say they blossumed. Remember this was a young team. As for LA it is 5% Phil. 94% Shaq/Kobe. 1% the rest. Phil will prove himself to me when he takes a bad team and makes them a good team, the way Doc, Mo Cheeks, and Nate McMillian have. If Scott wins the Championship next season I will move him up. Rudy Tomjonovich is popular and has a couple of rings, but was it him or Hakeem/Kenny that made the rockets good. The Rockets haven't done much since then yet Rudy is still praised. Obrien is impressive, Boston was s!!t before he took over, and they have had a winning record since, with the same players, Now thats what I call coaching.

[beav]

didn't take over a bad team...

[Guest]

The Rockets won 45 games IN THE WEST two years ago when

Franics was healthy.Fracis/Rice/Taylor and other missed alot of

games.This is obviousally a big problem.The Rockets will make

the playoffs this season.

[Blunt91]

I think that it is all about respect. When Phil Jackson 1st came over to the lakers everybody on the team knew he was a winner.They knew if they wanted to win a title they needed to listen to this man because he has been at the championship level. The guys that were on the old" Lakers team like Van Exel didn't respect Del Harris, although I think he would have respected Phil. A coach has to get the respect of his players or he will never accomplish his goals.

[Dukegotgame]

Everyone says the Phil takes over teams with lots of talents which is true.... but look at the Mavs they have so much talent that if Nelson could actually make some sort of offense or install a defense and try to get his players to actually run plays they'd sweep the lakers easily. So I think having a good coach makes a huge difference. Say what you like, but I don't know how many other coaches could keep two huge egos like Shaq's and Kobe's from ruining everything.

[BlackHawkDown]

Nelly is over rated in my opinion. But look at Silas his team sucks without Davis and Mashburn they dont have a player but he has their sorry butts in the running every year. Doc has next to nothing to work with and still makes the team good. Phil only coaches great teams. You see Mike 3 years out of the game, old, and injured all the time still turned the Wiz, a 10 win team at best, into a 35 win team. Phil didn't prove sqaut in CHI, In LA I am tempted to say he is the difference for the Lakers we wont know until he retires and we will know if Shaq/Kobe are for real. Besides the Lakers only got out of the West by luck this year and in 00' they were lucky the Blazers were candy @sses otherwise they would have gone home.

[Diesel]

Phil is the best coach at reaching Star Players. But what happens when Phil doesn't have his stars? What happened those TWO yrs that Jordan didn't play for Phil? Wasn't Pippen still on of the 50 greatest? Wasn't Toni still the best 6th man and Best Europlayer ever? Wasn't Grant still one of the best Pf in the game at that time? What happened? He put up a Hawks Like effort.

What would Phil do with Last yrs Detroit Pistons? Weather or not he has the Triangle offense, Phil needs the most dominant players in the game in order to win. So if that is what you need to win, does that make you a great coach?

Say what you want.... The truth of the matter is that Phil will never put himself in a position where he doesn't have the 2 best players in the gm. If you don't believe look over his track record. A week before the Lakers came Calling, Phil turned down the NJ job?

It wasn't the money.

It wasn't that he didn't like NJ (He lived in NJ).

It wasn't the timing because one week later he's taking the Lakers deal.

The truth is that he knew he couldn't win with Marbury, Kittles, and Van Horn. To me, that's not a great coach. That's an opportunist.

[Guest Walter]

[Diesel]

If we were to go down in History of Coaching....

Would Red Aurebach be the best coach ever? Would Phil be second?

I don't think so. Really, you have to take a look at what a coach did and weigh that with what a coach had?

Aurebach for Yrs had the best players in the game. He did have a really good win vs. the mighty 76ers one yr but that's about it.

For Yrs Phil had the most dominant players in the game. However what happened when Jordan went to Baseball.

Again, you have to look at the facts. The facts are that both men were blessed with very very gifted players. How many of these guys players were top 50 greatest material?

With that as somewhat of a standard, now you got to look at the accomplishment of other coaches.

Chuck Daily. He won two titles with a Detroit team that was very good. In fact, I don't know if there is a Phil team that could have played with the Bad Boys and one a 7 game set during their title years.

Nellie. Hardly anybody remembers but Nellie won the title with a Bucks team that had NO allstars.

Lenny the Great One. Nobody has won more games than the Great one. He has won a title. The question is, how many of Lenny's players were recognized as top 50 greatest players? I don't even think that they recognized Jack Sigma? Maybe DJ?

Pat Riley. OK, Riley had Showtime. However, he also went to NY and took them to the title game with CBA players (mason, Starks, and a few others).

Rudy T. When you mention great Back to Back wins, I don't think a Jordan Led Bulls team could have beaten the Rockets in yr 2 of their Finals. Hakeem, Drexler were too much. The Bulls never had to play against a dominant Big Man in the finals. They barely played against Ewing or Shaq.

[Traceman]

The game has just passed him by. He has had a very good coaching career and his name certainly deserves to be mentioned among the all time greats. He HAS won more games than any other coach and he has won more games than he has lost. I don't think he's a very good coach NOW but when you look at the history of the game, he certainly deserves to be mentioned among the best ever.

That being said, Lenny is no Phil Jackson. Never was and never will be. Titles aren't EVERYTHING but they certainly matter, particularly when you are talking about NINE titles versus ONE title. In addition, look at Phil's regular season coaching record. His winning percentage is incredible.

Obviously, Phil has been blessed with incredibly talented players but it is his ability to get those players to sacrifice their games for the good of the team that makes him great. He was able to get Jordan, Shaq and Kobe to make changes to their games that no other coach was able to get them to make. That is what makes him great in my opinion.

Phil only coached two seasons without a great player but look at those two teams. The first season after Jordan left, the Bulls won 55 games. 55 games with Pippen, Kukoc and Ho Grant. That team SHOULD have won the EC Title too but thet got cheated on the phantom foul called on Pippen against NY. That is good coaching. He followed that up by winning 47 games inb thwe regular season the following year. In his worst season, the team STILL won 47 games. I don't even really like Phil all that much but he is the best ever in my opinion.

What was your point about Daily and Riley? Both are widely considered to be among the best ever and both had great players on their teams. Lenny and Nellie are considered among the best ever as well.

As far as whether or not Jordan and company could have beaten the Rockets or not, all I know is that Jordan won 6 titles in seasons when Hakeem and Drexler were playing and Hakeem and Drexler have ZERO in any year that Jordan played a full season.

[Diesel]

Lenny didn't have Jordan, Pippen, Shaq or Kobe either.

[BlackHawkDown]

My problem with the Phil has more championships philosophy.

Coaches are managers so lets compare them to other managers.

Bill Gates vs. Jack Welsch

Welsch - GE has possessed the largest value of any corporation for years. GE has larger revenues and profits than Microsoft, More holdings, and more employees.

However Welsch like Phil Jackson stepped into a situation where GE was already one of the 3 largest corporations in the country and top 10 in the world. Just like the Lakers were a top 5 to top 7 team. Welsch like Phil improved the situation and now GE is the largest corporation in the country, total revenues and market value.

Gates started with a friend a few thousand, from his high school company, a plane ticket and a dream. Gates has become dominant in his sector. Not in terms of market share but in terms of ability to affect the sector. His company is proportionately more profitable and his companies growth has been much more meteoric.

Therefore looking at where they started and how successful they were in building their respective companies. I would say Gates is the better CEO. Although there are far more factors involved that I dont have time or desire to expound on. I* think this makes my point.

Phil has more to work with.

Doc,Silas, Cheeks(the Blazers are garbage), McMillian, etc. have next to nothing to work with but have made their team outperform themselves.

[BlackHawkDown]

I think Zeke is one of the best coaches in the league. Anybody else think so.

[Teeareess]

I actually think he's one of the worst. I thought Indiana should've played at a much higher level then they did.