Phil Jackson Contemplating Retirement: Will He Retire? What's his legacy?

Now that the Lakers have won their 16th franchise title and their 2nd in a row, while returning their core set of guys, they're considered to be the favorites to win the NBA title next season. But while all may seem calm along the surface of the Lakerverse, there is still the murky situation that presents itself with the possible retirement of their Hall of Fame Basketball coach, Phil Jackson.

Phil Jackson has stated that he will have made his decision whether to stay or retire within the next week or so. When asked during a post-finals presser whether winning the championship has effected his decision to return Phil stated, "It does improve my chances."

That said, my opinion isn't so optimistic... or maybe it is. I have long been a proponent to the theory that Phil Jackson has been the NBA's best GAME MANAGER ever, but not necessarily the best "coach". When it comes to the x's and o's and igniting passion into players during a time out, the true coaches of the Lakers are its veteran leaders Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, with Pau Gasol becoming more and more vocal in the ranks. This has led to Phil being "out-coached" on the occasions where he faces a team comparable in talent to his own (which hasn't been very often) as its sometimes difficult for players to understand what adjustments need to be made, when they're in the heat of a tough battle and Phil is not best at making the necessary adjustments. Also the triangle offense usually accredited to him, was introduced by one of his assistant coaches Tex Winter. When new players come to the Lakers, it is Kobe who teaches them the system, not Phil. So Phil's value could be argued to be somewhat overinflated.

But this isn't a post to bash on Phil Jackson. Slightly overrated sure, but he's still one heck of a coach. Phil councils the egos of professional athletes like non-other and is a pure winner, he succeeds in those facets EXTREMELY well. Furthermore THIS, his 11th championship has likely provided most for his legacy; Phil faced a tough and great coach, and in the end when both coaches' backs were against the wall, Phil was able to go toe to toe with Doc Rivers and make the needed adjustments and counter-adjustments in crunch time of this series. This finals coaching performance (or rather, after game 3) was the best performance I've seen from Phil and thus locking him into my top 3 coaches of the modern basketball era.

On that note, does he retire or not? I think he does, I don't see Phil coming back. He has accomplished much in his career; as both a player and a coach. He won 2 championship rings with the Knicks in the 70s as a player and added 11 more to his collection as a Hall of Fame coach. So his 13 exceeds the total of all player/coach combos in NBA history. Most importantly however, his latest championship proved to be his toughest, most earned win. He PROVED to the doubters (myself included) his absolute coaching greatness. What more does he have to accomplish now?? If Phil were to leave now, he'd be going out on top and so I can't see what could be better timing for the "Zen Master" than now, when the stars are aligned so beautifully. If that isn't enough to force his hand then factor in his multiple health concerns he faces and the possibility of him facing a pay cut due to the recession and I'd give him an 85% chance of retiring. But we haven't too long to wait, the official info should be in sooner rather than later.

So if he does retire, what's next for the Lakers? Who would fill the head coaching vacancy? Well the choice that would make the most sense, would be Byron Scott. He was a great young piece for their showtime championship teams and even was an old veteran for the team during Kobe's rookie season. He went on to have great coaching success, taking a Jason Kidd led Nets and had them overachieve by making it to the finals twice (losing to the Lakers). After being unjustly fired, he was hired by the Hornets and had that team overachieving past the level of their talent and competing with the Lakers for the best record in the Western Conference just a few seasons ago. The man knows how to coach and being a former Laker involved in the glory, completely understanding the history, and one of the few coaches available that Kobe and Laker management would trust to handle the duties, he'd be a shoe in. Not to mention, he'd come at a much more economical price tag then the 12 million dollars Phil made this past season. Scott could come in and likely be paid something more like 5 million and recession or not, 7 million dollars less is a lot of money. My prediction is that if Phil leaves, it's a 90% chance that Scott will be hired within a week of the departure. So math majors, I give it a 76.5% chance that Scott will be the coach for the Lakers next season. But while we still have Phil, how about we enjoy what he has to say following his 11th coaching ring (and let's try and avoid the titillatingly hot Hannah Storm while we're at it, key word being "try"....)