Kill Phil, Volume III

Money finally won out. A nagging girlfriend finally won out. The lure of immortality finally won out.

Whatever the motivation, Phil Jackson has once again resumed his courtside seat at the head of Los Angeles Lakers bench, commencing his third stint as an NBA coach — and second in Los Angeles.

The first leg was legendary. Coaching the Chicago Bulls from 1989-1998, Jackson implemented Tex Winter's three-post, or triangle, offense to effectively utilize the talents of Michael Jordan and complementary skills of Scottie Pippen. Filling out a roster of effective roll players, the Jackson-led Bulls won six NBA championships in his nine years.

Then, Bulls GM Jerry Krause wore him down.

After spending one season in hiatus, Jackson emerged in Los Angeles, where he was heir to the Lakers' great — albeit underachieving and counteractive — tandem of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. Here a dynasty lay, waiting to be unlocked by the enchanted knight who possessed the Golden Key. The Zen Master was that enchanted knight.

Jackson was widely acclaimed for his effectiveness in managing two of the game's largest egos and melding them into a team framework. He guided the Lakers to titles in his first three seasons, lasting five in all. However, as infighting between Shaq and Kobe worsened and drove a divisive line through the Lakers organization, O'Neal was traded and Jackson became the sacrificial lamb offered before the altar of Kobe Bryant.

Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss did not invite him back for a sixth season.

This past June, less than one year after his unceremonious sacrifice, Jackson rejoined the Lakers, thereby fulfilling rumors that began as early as last February when his successor, Rudy Tomjanovich, resigned for medical reasons. In doing so, he reunited with the remaining half of the O'Neal/Bryant tandem that caused his previous departure, the player he condemned as "uncoachable" in his book, The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul, released during his year in exile.

By now, everyone is well-versed in the fence-mending that has come from all camps since June.

Rumors of Jackson's return were enough to help Bryant find religion. "In Phil Jackson, [the Lakers] chose a proven winner," Bryant said in a statement released shortly after Jackson's signing. "That is something I support."

Dr. Buss says the non-tendering of a contract to Jackson at the end of the 2003-04 season was just business, that Phil is like a son to him. This, of course, is close to the truth, given Jackson's romantic interest in Buss's daughter, Jeanie, the Lakers' Vice President of Business Affairs who lobbied both father and boyfriend to bring Phil back into the team's fold.

And, of course, there's the Zen Master himself, who has rediscovered peace after a year of introspection in Australia, New Zealand, and Montana. During that time, the balloon string of aura emanating from Jackson's inner self again intertwined itself with the life force of the Lakers engine while his fingers intertwined themselves with $30 million dollar bills.

But Jackson has claimed it's not about the money. "I've always believed," he states in his best-selling book that by happenstance exploits his personal relationships with Buss, Bryant, and other confidants, "that you lose your soul in some form or fashion when you chase the almighty dollar."

Chase may be the operative word here. One can't be regarded as chasing something that so eagerly presents itself for the taking, as Dr. Buss's money has apparently done. Jackson's principles still make good bedfellows with his wealth.

There was also the matter of reestablishing some semblance of a working relationship with Kobe. In The Last Season, Jackson related how much significance he placed on a meeting with Bryant before deciding whether to return to the Lakers. "I'm waiting, instead, for a meeting that I'm sure will have a much greater bearing on my future — the one with Kobe."

That is, until Kobe blew him off.

Nearly a month later, as Jackson was pondering "on a more spiritual level the possibilities for the future", he reached an important conclusion. The meeting that was once so important and was never going to happen now didn't need to happen. Phil was in.

Volume III was about to begin.

So, why would Jackson, regarded as one of the greatest coaches in NBA history, subject his reputation to the vagaries of today's game? Possibly because he is one of the greatest, but not yet the greatest.

For now, he must still share that distinction with at least one other — Arnold "Red" Auerbach. The man who built the Boston Celtics into the NBA's first and most enduring dynasty is perhaps the one who built the competitor that now lies within Jackson.

Ironically, it is another Red to whom Jackson ascribes credit for shaping him into the leader and competitor he has become — the late Red Holzman, Phil's former coach and mentor during his playing days with the New York Knicks.

On the eve of celebrating his ninth NBA championship back in 2002, Jackson voiced his desire to overtake Auerbach, who also holds nine titles. "I'm sure it's a wish he'd have to see me replace [Auerbach]," Jackson said of Holzman, a fierce rival of Auerbach in the early 1970s.

In a light sparring of words that ensued, Auerbach qualified much of Jackson's achievements by characterizing the teams he inherited as "ready-made" and pointing out Phil's limited role in teaching and developing young players.

Jackson's evidence in defense of his accomplishments is the competitive level spawned by the breadth of today's NBA, with its 30 teams and four rounds of playoffs. Auerbach's titles occurred in an era when the NBA was expanding from eight to 14 teams. In some years, the Celtics faced only two playoff opponents.

Perhaps the course of his global travels and year of introspection helped Jackson discern one remaining challenge in the midst of those distant and murky horizons in his future — the challenge contained in Auerbach's gauntlet.

As with the conclusion of every NBA season, several coaching opportunities were available last June. Among them, the Minnesota Timberwolves vacancy looked a bit more promising on paper, and speculation was rampant about Larry Brown stepping down from the two-time Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons.

Nevertheless, Jackson chose a return to Los Angeles. In comparison, this Lakers squad looks anything but the ready-made teams of the 1989 Chicago Bulls or 1999 Los Angeles Lakers. And, with salary cap problems, instant fixes through veteran free agent signings that were so available to the 2003 Lakers are not in this team's imminent arsenal.

The road to immortality must pass through Auerbach's haunting insight.

If he is to succeed, Phil will indeed have to take a page out of Red's old school book. Young players like Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown must be developed into the supporting roles that comprise Jackson's triangle offense. Of course, this is not to suggest he's back on square one, either. Arguably the best player in the game today already sits on the Lakers' roster.

In the event that one player is no longer enough, Jackson has outwardly tempered expectations to bring home a 10th title. "I would be most amazed if at the end of the third year, we had an opportunity to do that," he said.

Privately, the competitor within surely tells Phil he can do this, that he can once again meld 12 separate wills into another Larry O'Brien Trophy. If he can, he will surpass his principal nemesis, Red Auerbach, and seize outright the distinction of being the NBA's most prolific coach.

"It is a vital component of the warrior mentality to respect your enemy," Jackson once said, "to realize that you cannot be great unless he is great."

In the seasons to come, Jackson's third campaign will reach its end, either in boundless glory or in a heap of rubble along the roadside of immortality, victim to a lofty self-expectation.