Phil Jackson Era Lakers Champ Responds To Coach's Criticism Of Modern NBA

Jackson, who led LA to five titles, said some truly insensitive stuff.

Longtime former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson inadvertently found himself in hot water recently when some really insensitive comments the heavily decorated Hall of Famer vomited out during an extensive podcast interview with Def Jam Records co-founder Rick Rubin began making the rounds.

“They did something that was kind of wanky, they did a bubble down in Orlando and all the teams that could qualify went down there and stayed down there,” he said. “And they had things on their back like, ‘Justice.’ They made a funny thing like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.’ … So my grandkids thought that was pretty funny to play up those names. So I couldn’t watch that.”

“It was catering, trying to cater to an audience or trying to bring a certain audience into play,” Jackson said. “They didn’t know it was turning other people off. People want to see sports as non-political.”

Apparently Jackson was completely clueless as to the importance of that moment. Whether or not players using specific slogans on the backs of their jerseys positively affected change is immaterial, that was just one element of a very comprehensive package of progressive, social justice-themed initiatives that the NBA and NBPA ultimately agreed upon ahead of the 2020 playoffs -- something that would not have happened if had the league's top players not decided to stand up against specific then-recent instances of police brutality across the country that had actually inspired mass protests worldwide.

The names were perhaps the most visible component of a broader agreement, which also included the creation of a social justice coalition that included pushing for police reform, improving voting access, and addressing other important public issue. Team owners also coordinated to convert every single NBA arena, then standing empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the pre-vaccine era, into a polling location in that year's pivotal U.S. election. That election, by the way, featured more voters than any other in our nation's history: 257,605,088.

It was a terrific step for the players and the league, reminiscent of some other really important historic moments from Lakers forward Elgin Baylor and Boston Celtics center Bill Russell 60 years prior, in grappling with a pre-Civil Rights Act nation. The fact that Jackson felt players standing up for themselves during a new, very important point in time so offended him that it's caused him to stop watching them is pretty disappointing. 

For the NBA coach who's led his teams to more titles than any other (11, including five with LA), in part by being so uniquely in tune with his players, to not have empathy for other people in this moment is honestly a bit shocking. Then again, Jackson is 77 years old. Let's hope the Zen Master was just having a weird senior moment.

Former Los Angeles Lakers small forward Metta Sandiford-Artest, who won a title with LA in 2010 under Jackson, recently reflected on his old head coach's comments during a conversation with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bally Sports.

“Keep in mind, I’m NOT a politician. I’m from Queensbridge but I think people don’t really understand the trauma,” Sandiford-Artest noted, in an apparent allusion to Jackson's insensitivity.

"This is locker room talk, barber shop talk, grocery store talk, especially with [the 2020 police murder of] George Floyd with Black Lives Matter, right?" he reflected. "And so from that perspective everybody’s so helpless. I did even though I’m not going to take my political stance but I did feel helpless. I felt helpless and confused. I definitely wanted to do something about it but I felt like our people didn’t have a voice. So people and the athletes do it and have their views but when people say things, people have to be a little more direct — is it the players or is it the executives? Who are you targeting because once again, the players are going to have to say something first. I’m a former player. I say that because there has to be balance.”

This was a fairly measured and diplomatic response from Sandiford-Artest with regard to his ex-coach, noting that Jackson perhaps just wasn't able to appreciate the greater significance of the moment, and what it represented for the players at the time to use their voices to affect positive change.

Across a 17-year NBA career, Sandiford-Artest was a one-time All-Star and an All-NBA Third Teamer, the 2004 Defensive Player of the Year, and a four-time All-Defensive Team honoree. He played for the Lakers from 2009-2013, serving as the team's starting small forward during its 2010 title run, and again from 2015-2017. Upon retiring, the 6'7" swingman out of St. John's hopped over to the coaching side of the equation, serving as the player development coach for LA's NBAGL affiliate in El Segundo, the South Bay Lakers.

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