Phil Jackson

The Pivotal Season: How the 1971--72 Los Angeles Lakers Changed the NBA
$24.95
This is an entertaining look at the Lakers historic title run in 1972; however, it is filled with errors of fact (Neal walk a rookie in 1961?) and spelling (Dave Debusschere is a Hall of Famer - spell his name correctly)! There are more examples, and they're pretty disctracting - it's tough to see that a major publisher wouldn't do a better editorial job.

The Last Season : A Team in Search of Its Soul
$15.00
This is a great book about the Lakers by Phil Jackson, their coach. It was sritten when he thought this would be the last year for that Laker team and the last year for him too. It has been very interesting.

Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior
$15.00
I have read this book twice since buying it a short time ago. It's quite readable and entertaining, not to say insightful.

This is a book written in Phil's voice and reads something like a diary he would have kept. It gives some good biographical information on Phil, his years in school, as a player for the NY Knicks, as a beginning coach and how he came to combine his spiritual searches with basketball playing and coaching. Most of the examples given and stories told pertain to Phils years as head coach of the Chicago Bulls. There are a number of references to books on Zen and Indian spirituality that have influenced his thinking

The only critique I would have is that the book's sense of time is rather fragmented and does not progress in a strictly linear fashion. There are references to events that occurred earlier and those to come later. So, I had to construct my own timeline to track the strict evolution of events--a minor chore--but it would have been helpful if the book had supplied this.

Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey
$21.95
This is a good book. I like Spiritual Hoops a little better even though Mind Games has 11 years more current information. Still, with Phil Jackson winning a record 10th NBA championship this year by reforming a relationship with a player he identified 5 years ago as "uncoachable," it's time for an update from him or about him. Maybe some day he will permit someone with insight to sit down and interview him extensively to develop a more complete picture. There is no question that he is an interesting man, and he does not quite get his due recognition given his achievements.