Mike D’Antoni’s hiring as Lakers head coach surprised a lot of people. But none more so than former Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who thought he had the inside track to land the job again.
Jackson, who coached the Lakers from 1999-2004 and then again from 2005-2011, talked with the Lakers over the weekend and was contemplating coming out of retirement to take his old job. But he got a wakeup call late Sunday night from the Lakers telling him they had hired D’Antoni, who resigned as Knicks coach last season.
“I wish it would have been a little bit cleaner,” Jackson told the Los Angeles Times on Monday. “It could have been much more circumspect and respectful of everybody that’s involved. It seemed slimy to be awoken with this kind of news. It’s just weird.”
After talking to Lakers executives Saturday, Jackson said he was excited about the new dynamic of the team, with new players Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, and that he was “physically much stronger now than I was last spring.”
He did acknowledge in a statement that “No contractual terms were discussed” and “we concluded with a handshake and an understanding that I would have until Monday to come back to them with my decision,” before Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak called him.
The 67-year old Jackson last coached in 2011 when the Lakers were swept in the Western Conference semifinals by the Mavericks — the first time ever in a playoff series that a Jackson-coached team was swept. Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2007, and has won 11 NBA titles in his 20 seasons as a head coach- six with the Bulls and five with the Lakers-as well as two as a player with the Knicks.
He said he only would have come out of retirement for the Lakers’ job.
“It’s L.A. It’s the Lakers. It’s the players I’ve been with. It’s my partner’s team. It’s the family business. But I have no intention of going somewhere and starting all over and coaching form scratch,” Jackson said.
Several Lakers players, including Pau Gasol were hoping Jackson would return after Mike Brown was fired after the team’s 1-4 start.
“Everybody had expectations about it. They were all pretty high. We all understand what Phil brings to the table and how successful he has been since he’s been here and what he means to this city, to the franchise,” Gasol said after Monday’s practice, according to Yahoo.