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“With Bulls, We Never Really Had That”: How Shaquille O’Neal Pushed Phil Jackson to Join Lakers

Published 05/17/2020, 12:58 PM EDT

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The NBA community always regarded coach Phil Jackson as someone with a zen attitude. Calm and collected, he would think up strategies and ways to motivate his players. Another thing he used to do was examine players through and through. One such excerpt from his examination of Shaquille O’Neal recently came out.

Phil Jackson’s X-Ray for Shaquille O’Neal

Apparently, during the 1997-98 season, Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson maintained a diary for ESPN the magazine. At the time, ESPN was documenting the season to turn it into the docuseries we now know as, ‘The Last Dance’.

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Phil collected his thoughts and analysis and put it all together. Writer Rick Telander said, “Phil Jackson has been collecting his thoughts and analyzing the events surrounding what appears to be the final season of the Bulls’ 1990s run for The Magazine.”

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Recently, Adam Howes, an NBA expert, posted two images that are apparently portions from the diary Jackson kept. In the first part, the legendary coach talked about how he actually watched Shaq and wrote about his temper.

He reveals that when the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns; he watched Shaq being taken out of the game.

“(Shaq) got taken out of the game for committing his fourth foul- a brutish kind of foul- because he was angry,” Jackson wrote.

Further, Jackson highlighted the fact that Shaq didn’t understand why he couldn’t play the way he did and argued with his coach. Jackson wondered if the then young rising star knew what he could and could not do to become a star player.

In the second part, Phil Jackson writes about how Shaq would be the perfect part of the triangle offense. The triangle offense is a strategy that is supposedly the most optimal way for all five players to space the floor on the court.

Jackson, along with his assistant coach Tex Winter, won 11 NBA Finals using the triangle offense. Hence, the Bulls head coach expert felt that Shaq’s game placed him as the perfect candidate for being the center in the offensive formation.

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Jackson also revealed that what he could have with Shaq, he never did with the Bulls. That probably boosted his desire to coach the Lakers.

“Throw the ball to this guy (Shaq); what’s the defense going to do?” Jackson wrote.

It seems Phil Jackson had really thought Shaq’s future through. As we all know, Shaq went on to become an NBA legend with the Lakers.

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Written by:

Maitreyee Joshi

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