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Regarding the Kendrick Perkins trade:
Phil Jackson tongue in cheek on Celtics trading Kendrick Perkins: "They go down as never having lost a playoff series."
Regarding the Spurs:
So far this season, everything has gone right for the Spurs. The ball bounced their way more often than not, they won close games they shouldn't win, they had some comeback wins too. More than anything, they have also shown a level of health that I didn't expect.
They had an injury to [Tony] Parker where he had a remarkable turnaround and was able to make a comeback after a game, so that's kept them pretty intact for the season," Jackson said. "[Tim] Duncan went down one game, looked like he was going to be out for the season, was back for the next game, miraculously.
My conclusion is that they must have Jesus Christ working on their bench as a trainer.
On the Spurs 107-92 victory in 2007:
We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts.
After the media backlash primarily started by ESPN, Phil had this to say:
But in retrospect, it wasn't really funny, Jackson said before the Lakers played Houston on Wednesday night. When you take it out of context, it wasn't funny. It was a poor attempt at humor and I deserved to be reprimanded by the NBA.
If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, I apologize.
On former Laker Vladimir Radmanovic:
Phil Jackson called Vladimir Radmanovic a "space cadet" on Thursday and wondered aloud to the media as to whether or not Vlad Rad has any idea what is expected of him with the Lakers.
"He could be on Mars. I know it's not on Venus, but he could be on Mars," Jackson said. "He is kind of a free spirit on the floor," Jackson continued. "He's going to touch the ball and shoot it, even though I tell him those aren't usually good shots. He still wants to know if he's hot. If he's not hot, he wants to get hot. If he's not going to get hot, then he wants to shoot so he can get hot."
On the city of Memphis:
Add Memphis to the list of cities Jackson has slammed in his time with the Lakers. He took one look at the desolate downtown on Tuesday and declared, "It's like Dresden after the war."
On the city of Sacramento:
Jackson called Sacramento a "cow town" and said Kings fans were "semi-civilized" and "maybe redneck in some form or fashion."
On Pau Gasol about his need to be aggressive and then on Kevin Garnett:
He (Gasol) totally gets it. He is who he is. We're not going to make him into (Boston's Kevin) Garnett. He's not going to go around and punch guys in the (groin). He's too nice of a guy.
This is an intelligent person (Gasol) who understands what this game is about. We've been to the Finals three years in a row, so that's part of it.
On Shaq:
Shaq is the only person I’ve ever had that hasn’t been a worker. He’s the one guy that didn’t really like to work, said the coach who boasts nine NBA championship rings. I know Pat [Riley] got him working here in Miami. We had a hard time getting him to work. All the other players — Michael [Jordan], Scottie [Pippen], Dennis Rodman, all those guys that we had, Horace Grant, they’re all hard-working practice and personal work players.
On Dwyane Wade:
He travels on that spin move. He picks up that pivot foot and everybody knows it. Dwyane Wade can cover so much ground when he makes that move. As you know, he can go 20 feet with that spin move and get to the basket.
On Kevin Durant:
Here's what Jackson said about Durant, who led the league in free throws: "I think a lot of the referees are treating him like a superstar.… He gets to the line easily and often…Yeah, by the calls he gets, he really gets to the line a lot, I'll tell ya. ... There's a couple of plays in the last game where I was pretty curious how he got there.''
On David Stern and the fine for Kevin Durant comments:
“I think when you start throwing one- and two-game suspensions in the threats, I think that means a lot to both ball clubs and to coaches,” Jackson said Friday before Lakers practice at the Ford Center. “It seems awful heavy-handed to me, but David is one that isn’t shy about being heavy-handed."
“There’s a certain gamesmanship that goes on that he obviously he feels cheapens the game. It never was explained to us until it suddenly came down here this last week that arbitrarily they’re going to do this…”
But when asked whether Stern should be fed up with what has become a steady stream of comments on the officiating, Jackson said: “I don’t think so. I think there’s a situation here that – favoritism on the NBA court, I don’t think anybody’s going to be deluded into thinking that people don’t gets calls on the court regardless of how you say it. It’s just a natural evolution of the game and a natural evolution of who gets the ball the most, and they’re going to end up a lot of times at the foul line. Unfortunately it didn’t work that way for Kobe [Bryant] last night but it did for Kevin [Durant]. But that’s the way things go in this game. You have to accept it, swallow it, and move on.”
On the formation of the new-look Miami Heat:
I always refer to when Wilt Chamberlain was traded from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and that put [Elgin] Baylor, [Jerry] West and Chamberlain together — three of the top scorers in NBA history — and they never won a championship together the four years they were together, Jackson said.
It’s not always scorers and talent that wins it. But it’s teamwork that does it.
