About the Author

PHIL JACKSON is arguably the greatest coach in the history of the NBA. His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989-1998; during his tenure, Chicago won six NBA titles. His next team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won five NBA titles, from 2000 to 2010. He holds the record for the most championships in NBA history as a player and a head coach. He also has the highest winning percentage of any NBA coach (.704). Jackson was a player on the 1970 and 1973 NBA champion New York Knicks. In 2007 Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
A former editor for Sports Illustrated and People, HUGH DELEHANTY is the co-author with Phil Jackson of the bestselling memoir, Sacred Hoops.

Reviews

Jackson won 11 championships as an NBA head coach with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, a feat all the more impressive, and complicated, given that he had to manage superstar personalities like Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in L.A. and Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, none of whom was eternally ready to embrace the group effort required in basketball. As a coach, Jackson's method was to encourage individuality within the team, a paradigm that required flexibility on his end, whether it was embracing the human id known as Dennis Rodman or sharpening his teams' focus by practicing mindfulness meditation. Jackson's seventh book, which traces his path from North Dakota ministers' son to his current legendary status, memorably describes how he tamed the delicate nature of a basketball team. While the book has a nice amount of material detailing the exhausting mental effort required to lead a team-things were so corrosive with Bryant early on, that the coach dreamt of spanking him-Jackson doesn't offer nearly enough of himself, so the book feels more like a marketing tool meant to polish his public profile as a sagacious Zen master of tall men. Readers looking for a motivational push will be most pleased; basketball fans hankering for insider stories on some historic teams will be disappointed. Photos not seen by PW. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Jackson, again with Delehanty, who coauthored Jackson's previous book, Sacred Hoops, seems to have intended this as a memoir of how he became one of the most successful coaches ever in any sport. He starts by describing his early years as a basketball player and coach, but then the book becomes a series of short professional summaries of his years as coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, mostly focusing on the respective teams' playoff and championship runs. The facts of those games have been covered in the many books about Jackson, Michael Jordan, the Bulls, or the Lakers, yet Jackson offers few new insights here into his coaching or his relationships with his players; for example, he mentions his use of team meditation sessions but doesn't go further to describe how, why, or whether that approach worked. Readers likewise may be left wondering how and why Jackson succeeded so extensively when most coaches are lucky to have one championship ring. Verdict Even casual NBA fans will find few new stories here. It's an okay introduction for those sports fans who know little about Jackson or the teams and players he coached. Most readers will do better with older books such as Sam Smith's The Jordan Rules.-Derek Sanderson, Mount Saint Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.