--- title: 10 Questions for Phil Jackson | TIME description: Basketball coach Phil Jackson on love, Kobe Bryant , his fantasy team and why he won't return to the sidelines canonical: https://time.com/video/LGEbkssG/ og:title: 10 Questions for Phil Jackson og:description: Basketball coach Phil Jackson on love, Kobe Bryant , his fantasy team and why he won't return to the sidelines og:url: https://time.com/video/LGEbkssG/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LGEbkssG/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Phil Jackson twitter:description: Basketball coach Phil Jackson on love, Kobe Bryant , his fantasy team and why he won't return to the sidelines twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LGEbkssG/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Phil Jackson > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Phil Jackson [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Phil Jackson](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LGEbkssG.m3u8) (6:12)  _Published 2013-05-23. Basketball coach Phil Jackson on love, Kobe Bryant , his fantasy team and why he won't return to the sidelines_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:35 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [In Memoriam: Kobe Bryant](/video/QOhDgLG5/) ### In Memoriam: Kobe Bryant [Phil Jackson's legacy: Legendary coach, or awful executive?](/video/l20NFtcB/) ### Phil Jackson's legacy: Legendary coach, or awful executive? [10 Questions for Reggie Jackson](/video/zboOo2Yq/) ### 10 Questions for Reggie Jackson --- ## Transcript Phil Jackson has won eleven NBA championships, I'm delighted to say that he is here with us today and we're talking about his new book, called of course, Eleven Rings, The Soul of Success, Mr. Jackson, welcome. Thank you very much for allowing me on. So you say in your book Eleven Rings that you never really felt comfortable during victory celebrations, which is weird, because you had so many. Why was that? You know, I guess the joy after a ball game, and the, you know, relief after a ball game is fine. It's that parade two days later that you're on a bus, you're in a car, and, you know, for a basketball coach, you know, it's like, well next season's started yesterday or the day after the last one was over, And we can celebrate it, but let's not get too overboard here. You also say that the critical ingredient in winning a ring is love. Would you like [ LAUGH ] to explain? You know, I know teams that get along well together. They party well together. They have a great time together. But they're not about you know, the sharing and the, the real deep care that goes into what you have to do as a team. Yeah, you have to protect each other. You have to cover each other's butt when they're, someone's getting beat offensively. You have to know the, the patterns that people best fit, when they come off for a shot. How to deliver the ball the right way, so they can get a good shot. All these type of things go into it. They mean that you have move outside yourself. Think about others. Your coaching techniques, you say, arose from your belief system, which, if I read it right, is sort of a combination of Christian mit, mysticism, some Zen Buddhism and some Native American beliefs. Do you believe there's a God? Well, yes. And I'm, I'm not so sure we use that word in the right tense or context, I should say. You know, I like, you know, all those other terms: Yahweh, or, you know, prime mover, or, you know, the presence that there is, or whatever. You know, but, you know, that naming aspect, I understand, sometimes it gets pretty rigid and formal. it's, it's about following the moment. Being in harmony with the moment that's really important, and I think that's where you know we've lost some of our Idea of what is religion and what is spirituality. So if you are starting a team from scratch, and it was a team that was i don't know in the moment, and you could have any player in history, you know who would be your very first pick? In my estimation, the guy that has to be there would be Bill Russell. He's won eleven championships as a player. I think that's the. [ INAUDIBLE ] idea of what excellence is is when you win championships. So Bill Russell and then if you had to choose between Kobe and Michael, who would you choose. I would flip a coin and which ever one came up heads or tails, i would take that person, their that good. [ LAUGH ] What would it take for you to return to the sidelines? I, you know, I don't want to do that. I mean, I was kind of offered that by the Lakers this year, and we danced a little dance but it didn't work out and they went another direction and that's fine. But that was the only situation I could ever think about coaching, getting back on the sidelines again. In the book you say that you, you treated, Kobe, a little differently, after his rape allegations. An he said that's because of your, if I understand it right, smothered response to your, your own, daughters sexual assault. Right. Was it that you thought he was guilty, or was it that you couldn't see him through, a different lens? I think it was just You know, replacement for what had happened to my daughter, you know. Five years earlier, four years earlier, when she was in college. It had been, kinda, pushed aside or smothered. There's also some things in there about my own culpability. Having been in Vail the same night he was there. Right. In that situation and not having made the contact to him. And have an opportunity to spend some time with him in a situation where, you know, he's probably. Needed some companionship. He just had an operation on a knee. Do I hear regret? Oh, yeah. Is regret, though, not... forgive me, I don't mean to be trivial, but it's not really of the moment. I mean... No, it's not. No, I had to reset myself on that one. Do you think Mr ., Mr. Bryant will win another NBA Title? It's going to be hard pressed. I mean he's, at an age where I think Michael Jordan won a couple of more. But he hadn't suffered the type of injury that Kobe went through at the end of the year this year. Devastating, Kellie's town is a very difficult injury that is survived and come back at the same level. Not to many people do it. Anybody can Kobe will. When you look back at the days in Chicago in the, you're smiling at me because you already know what I'm gonna ask right? With your days in Chicago in the 90s and then the Lakers in the, in the ort and today, which era do you think was better basketball? The NBA has filtered down some of the talent that's available to teams at this time. And it's done that through cap management. The 2000, 99 2000 team with the Lakers. Had not gone to that cap level where owners are going to be penalized for being over this cap, and so we had an extremely, deep, talented team. Probably the most talented team that I was able to coach, and, it was a lot of fun because they had never won a championship, and this was something that they had come to this point and failed before. And so getting them over the top and being a part of that was a lot of fun. Mr Jackson thanks very much. 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