Philip Douglas Jackson was born on September 17,1945 and is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive.
50 Facts About Phil Jackson
2.
Phil Jackson was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, leading them to six NBA championships.
3.
Phil Jackson then coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011; the team won five league titles under his leadership.
4.
Phil Jackson cited Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as one of the major guiding forces in his life.
5.
Phil Jackson applied Native American spiritual practices as documented in his book Sacred Hoops.
6.
Phil Jackson is the author of several candid books about his teams and his basketball strategies.
7.
In 2007, Phil Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
8.
In 1996, as part of celebrations for the NBA's 50th anniversary, Phil Jackson was named one of the 10 greatest coaches in league history.
9.
Phil Jackson retired from coaching in 2011 and joined the Knicks as an executive in March 2014.
10.
Phil Jackson was dismissed as the Knicks' team president on June 28,2017.
11.
Phil Jackson was born in Deer Lodge, Montana on September 17,1945.
12.
Phil Jackson did not see his first movie until he was a senior in high school, and went to a dance for the first time in college.
13.
Phil Jackson attended high school in Williston, North Dakota, where he played varsity basketball and led the team to a state title.
14.
Phil Jackson played football, was a pitcher on the baseball team, and threw the discus in track and field competitions.
15.
Bill Fitch successfully recruited Phil Jackson to the University of North Dakota, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
16.
Phil Jackson did well there, helping the Fighting Sioux to third- and fourth-place finishes in the NCAA Division II tournament in his sophomore and junior years.
17.
In 1967, Phil Jackson was drafted in the second round by the New York Knicks.
18.
Phil Jackson eventually established himself as a fan favorite and one of the NBA's leading substitutes, although he had very little playing time.
19.
Phil Jackson was a top reserve on the Knicks team that won the NBA title in 1973.
20.
Phil Jackson was named the CBA Coach of the Year in 1985.
21.
Phil Jackson regularly sought NBA jobs, but was turned down.
22.
In 1987, Phil Jackson was hired as an assistant coach by the Chicago Bulls under Doug Collins.
23.
Over nine seasons, Phil Jackson coached the Bulls to six championships, winning three straight championships over separate three-year periods.
24.
Some believed that Krause felt under-recognized for building a championship team and believed that Phil Jackson was indebted to him for giving him his first NBA coaching job.
25.
Phil Jackson took over a talented Lakers team and immediately produced results as he had done in Chicago.
26.
Green, Robert Horry, and Brian Shaw, and the assistance of former Bulls Horace Grant, Ron Harper, and John Salley, Jackson led the Lakers to two additional titles in 2001 and 2002, against the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, adding up to his third three-peat as head coach.
27.
On June 18,2004, three days after the loss to the Pistons, the Lakers announced that Phil Jackson would leave his position as Lakers coach.
28.
Phil Jackson had a contract offer outstanding from the Lakers, but he had not acted on it.
29.
Winter said Phil Jackson announced at the All-Star break that he would not want to return to the Lakers if Bryant returned.
30.
Phil Jackson subsequently led the Lakers to a seventh-seed playoff berth for the 2006 playoffs.
31.
Phil Jackson worked very seamlessly with Bryant, who had earlier shown his desire to bring back Phil Jackson to the bench.
32.
On January 7,2007, Phil Jackson won his 900th game, then placing him 9th on the all-time win list for NBA coaches.
33.
On December 25,2008, Phil Jackson became the sixth coach to win 1,000 games, with the Lakers defeating the Celtics in their first matchup since the last year's finals.
34.
Phil Jackson was the fastest to win 1,000 games, surpassing Pat Riley, who had taken 11 more games than Jackson.
35.
Phil Jackson again coached the Lakers to the NBA Finals in 2009, defeating the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, and Denver Nuggets in the process.
36.
On February 3,2010, Phil Jackson recorded his 534th win as Lakers head coach, surpassing Pat Riley to become the most successful coach in franchise history.
37.
Phil Jackson retired after the Lakers were swept out of the playoffs in the conference semifinals by that season's eventual NBA champions, the Dallas Mavericks, meaning that he would not get a fourth three-peat.
38.
Phil Jackson believed the Lakers would wait for his response, but the Lakers thought it was understood they would continue their search.
39.
In 2014, Phil Jackson was in discussions for months with the New York Knicks regarding an executive position with the team.
40.
The speculated reasoning for the parting of ways was Phil Jackson's attempted buying-out of Carmelo Anthony and his very public strife with Porzingis.
41.
Phil Jackson is a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award.
42.
Phil Jackson married his second wife, June, in 1974, but they divorced in 2000.
43.
Phil Jackson dated Jeanie Buss, the daughter of Lakers owner Jerry Buss, whom he met in 1999.
44.
Phil Jackson lived in Playa del Rey, Los Angeles when he was the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
45.
Phil Jackson has 26 hours of graduate study in psychology.
46.
Phil Jackson has admitted to using marijuana and LSD in the past.
47.
Phil Jackson is a Deadhead, a fan of the Grateful Dead, and attended some of their concerts in the 1970s and 1990s.
48.
Phil Jackson told the Lakers players in May 2011, when they were involved in a second-round playoff series against the Mavericks.
49.
Phil Jackson decided to delay his surgery until after the playoffs.
50.
Phil Jackson has had a winning record every year as a head coach, and currently has the highest winning percentage of any Hall of Fame coach, and the highest of any NBA coach coaching 500 games or more.