TALK-PICK Anything Goes | Keeping it up with the busy world…

Phil Jackson Struggles for Acclaim

Phil Jackson has won 10 championship rings but still he struggles for acclaim. After winning nine titles many thought that would be it, but the 10th was the most remarkable of Phil Jackson's career.

Phil Jackson was in the Australian Outback in the spring of 2005, taking it easy, taking in the sights, when the phone call asking him to return came. The year before he had walked away from the Los Angeles Lakers, and from basketball, worn down by the aches from his body, by the headaches of managing superstar egos and the grind of the schedule.

It wasn't as if there was anything left to achieve. He already had nine NBA Championships to his name, equal only to the Boston Celtics' patriarch Red Auerbach. This was his time. The opportunity to expand his inquisitive mind at his own pace, to add new knowledge to the political insights forged in the 70s and to the Zen Buddhist philosophies he had, against the odds, forged inextricably to his coaching mantra.

"I said, 'No, I couldn't do that. That's just not fair to the team, it's not fair to the players and myself.' I said that I'd have to think about it a long time because this team is quite a ways from a championship, even though Kobe Bryant always gives you a chance to win.

"So over the next two and a half months I spent some time thinking about it and rekindling my energy to come back and coach. But when I came back I didn't anticipate we'd win. I'd be part of it. I thought maybe I'd build the steps to a winning team, but I didn't think I'd be part of it, and this is much quicker than I thought it would happen."

On Sunday, Jackson confessed no regrets about returning from what he now terms his "sabbatical". The Lakers' 99–86 victory over the Orlando Magic secured the franchise's 15th title, taking the best of seven finals' series 4–1. All the talk has been about how this was the moment for Bryant finally to be the undisputed leader of a championship team, having played second fiddle to Shaquille O'Neal when they – and Jackson – won three straight titles at the start of the decade. With two minutes remaining, and the result beyond doubt, the man in charge was his usual inscrutable self on the bench. Except for the hint of a satisfied smile. A deserved one, with Jackson now alone at the head of the NBA's coaching honour roll with a ring for each of his fingers and thumbs.

"Having won 10 championships is a remarkable accomplishment, there's no doubt about it," he said. "Watching those games click down, and a championship of all different forms and fashions, on the road, at home, players that vault themselves into team play, is a remarkable thing to have watched.

"I think I've always said this before, the journey is what's really important, and it's important for the players and the coaches to watch these kids come together and form a unit and be supportive of each other. And this was no exception, this team."

The extraordinary thing is that Jackson's greatness is still being questioned, even as he separates himself from any other coach in American sport. When winning six titles in Chicago, the doubters observed, he had more than a little assistance from Michael Jordan. When he landed at the Lakers in 1999, O'Neal and Bryant were already in situ. All they needed was a guiding hand and the Triangle Offense. Auerbach, never shy of provoking anything associated with the "Evil Empire", pointed out that Jackson never had to construct a team, trade by trade, in the way he did. Yet the former New York Knicks forward concedes he is not the greatest tactical mind in the game.

But not great? Please.

"I think it's his ability to bring people together," said Bryant, who put his past feuds with Jackson behind him to land his own fourth title. "The biggest thing that he does so well is he continues to coach the group, continues to coach unity and chemistry and togetherness. And that's the biggest thing, because when you're together you can withstand adversity. If you're not, you can easily break apart and become a team of individuals. That's his biggest characteristic of what he does well."

Better, perhaps, than anyone else has ever done. Jackson is easily comparable to the other managerial virtuoso of his era, Sir Alex Ferguson, who has one more domestic title. Each had humble starts in their current profession after reasonable, if not spectacular, playing careers. Both are deep thinkers about the game. Neither has been afraid to draft in talented assistants. Phil likes to present his charges with books to teach lessons. The only reading material, you suspect, that Sir Alex has ever passed on to Manchester United's players is a copy of the Racing Post. But each delivers his message – and success. And that, ultimately, is how we, and time, will measure them.

This championship may be Jackson's finest hour. Pau Gasol is no Scottie Pippen or O'Neal. Even the late Auerbach could not dispute the role Jackson has had in reshaping the Lakers from the 34-win crew that stumbled through his gap year. Twelve months ago, the Boston Celtics demolished and demoralised their old rivals in the finals. Someone had to pick up the vanquished and dust them off. Two hip replacements mean that Jackson is no longer jumping up and down on the sidelines as he once did in Chicago. Yet quietly, in his own understated manner, he has done what he always did: prodding and cajoling when required, but otherwise letting his players utilise the talents within.

"I'd like to say that it's really about the players; it's about Kobe Bryant, about Derek Fisher's leadership of the team," he said during the celebrations at the Amway Arena. "I tried to take them through some of the build-up things that we had to do last year as a basketball club. They came together this year and were self-motivated, and for a coach that's always a positive sign. When a team is ready, they're aggressive, their learning curve is high, and they wanted to win.

"I've always felt as a coach you have to push your team, and I told them they had to push themselves. I wasn't at the stage of my life where I could get out and do the things that I had done 10 years ago or 15 years ago to push a team. And they pushed themselves, and I really feel strongly that this is about them."

Jackson's finest attribute is that he knows he isn't the man putting the ball in the basket. In the modern era, few players listen attentively to their coaches anyway but somehow, by saying less, not more, he has managed to convince solo artists to contribute to the group.

"He doesn't try to control you as a coach," Fisher said. "He empowers you to be who you are. And if you want to be the best, and if you believe in your team and if you believe you can win a title, then this is what can happen. He doesn't put himself in the way. He lets us do it. And this is the result."

Another June, another title. Aged 63, he may yet leave the Lakers this summer to pick up his travels once more. Who would begrudge him? History will show that more often that not, he made the right calls.