Jackson Won’t Be Giving Others a Writing Topic

LA Times:Author Phil Jackson, coming off his most recent book, “The Last Season,” began work Wednesday on the highly anticipated sequel, “Just Kidding,” the remarkable story of how Jackson found Kobe Bryant “coachable” upon Jackson’s return to the Lakers.

Chapter 1 opens with Jackson sitting behind the microphones at the Lakers’ practice facility appearing relaxed — and you would too knowing you’re going to earn $10 million a year for the next three years.

But he’s also pleasant and almost grandfatherly approachable — the arrogant, condescending edge gone or set aside for the day.

He apologizes to the media for being a few minutes late, sounding as if he really means it, makes an attempt to say something funny, proving he’s still not ready for a Leno appearance, and then makes it clear he intends to re-invent himself.

He tells the media he will be “more hands on” when it comes to coaching the Lakers, “maybe even standing up” on occasion rather than remaining planted on the bench.

He says he had the reputation early in his career of not working well with rookies, when kids were 21 and 22, but now rookies are teenagers in this new NBA age, and it’s a challenge, but by golly one he wants to tackle.

The Laker players average 25 years of age, he says, and there won’t be enough time early on to teach them everything they must learn. That raises the question: Then why did he remain in Montana all summer when he could have been here with the kids getting a head start on development? However, whatever he has to say about that, you know it’s not going to be in the book.

He fields the Bryant questions with ease, dismissing the “uncoachable” description of Bryant in his book as something that happened when he was “coming off the floor after a disappointing performance.” No mention, of course, why he remembered it, wrote it down and approved its obvious stinging mention in his book.

Bryant will be one of the Lakers’ captains, he says. Bryant is all about “re-establishing his dominance” in the game, he says. Bryant was picked third-team all-NBA, “and to Kobe Bryant,” he says, “that’s not acceptable.”

Operation Flattery is already well underway, and who doesn’t like flattery? Bryant feeds off it, and as Jeanie Buss likes to say, her boyfriend never does anything without a calculated reason attached, and so whatever Bryant wants to hear, he’s going to hear it. Love is in the air, but sorry, Jeanie, it’s not quite what you had in mind.

IN THE middle of this love fest, I interrupt, of course, to ask Jackson whether he feels as if he’ll be on eggshells for the next few months in everything said to Bryant or said about him, and he borders on bristling, “The only thing I will feel on eggshells about is questioning from you guys, the media,” he says.

He says he has told Bryant that he doesn’t want them discussing their relationship in the media, and I remind him it’s the only thing anyone is going to ask for the next few weeks.

“I’ll just shut up and not discuss it,” he says, turning his head away, just like the good old arrogant days after speaking from on high.

It’s the master calculator at work, shifting the attention and maybe even the blame to the media for asking about Phil & Kobe from now on. A few days ago, Bryant was telling a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News almost the same thing, word-for-Jackson word, the first sign that Operation Flattery was taking root.

And now without Shaquille O’Neal around to muck things up, Jackson and Bryant are left alone to bond, each needing the other to prosper once again, and if Jeanie ever pins Jackson down, what a great way to end the book: Bryant standing tall as Jackson’s best man.