Over the past week, Phil Jackson has been a more prevalent name in Los Angeles Lakers-related news than LeBron James.
Last Tuesday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski used a spot on national television to point out that Jackson — an 11-time champion head coach, including five with the Lakers — was consulting his ex-fiance Jeanie Buss on the franchise's all-important coaching search. This came a few months after The Athletic reported that Jackson had been advising Jeanie all season on basketball matters, including the tense Russell Westbrook situation.
At first, this didn't seem like a reason for Lakers fans to panic. Beyond Phil and Jeanie's personal history, it seems utterly reasonable for the Lakers co-owner to seek his counsel on the coaching front. He consulted on the previous Lakers coaching search, too, which saw them target two excellent candidates (Monty Williams, Ty Lue) before landing on his former scout, Frank Vogel, who delivered a championship. Plus, Jackson is a mentor of Nick Nurse, who would be the dream hire for Los Angeles. In terms of Westbrook, Jackson's most celebrated strength as a skipper was managing stars.
After all, Jackson is the most successful coach in NBA history. As long as the 76-year-old isn't a candidate to coach the team in 2022-23 (he isn't) or actively playing a shadow-executive role and advising Rob Pelinka and his long-time friend and colleague Kurt Rambis on personnel decisions — or successfully persuading them to incorporate the once-ingenious but now-antiquated Triangle — then fine, ask his advice.
The tune slightly changed a few days later with a report in The Athletic revealing that Jackson's informal influence was notable enough to irk some “powerful people” within the Lakers organization. Who could that be, I wonder? It's certainly not Kurt or Linda Rambis. And — unlike with Magic Johnson, whom Jeanie still consults, as well — it's hard to imagine Pelinka taking too much issue with Phil, who formed a deep bond with Pelinka's best friend, Kobe Bryant.
So: could it be the superstar and his mega-agent who still wield considerable power internally, and are decidedly not cool with the Zen Master?
Here's where it gets a bit more worrisome if you're a Lakers fan. The relationship between the Lakers, LeBron, and Klutch isn't in the rosiest place. Based on various reporting, tea leaves, and intel, the Lakers blame LeBron's camp for the Russ trade (even though Pelinka was on-board). At the trade deadline, Pelinka irked LeBron and Klutch by claiming that everybody was “alignment” on the deadline inactivity, when, in fact, Klutch wanted Westbrook moved. LeBron spent the ensuing days praising every general manager in sports not named Pelinka and publicly brainstorming a return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
LeBron is eligible to sign a two-year, $97.1 million extension on Aug. 4. It will remain on the table until June 2023. The Lakers are confident enough in his enjoyment of living in Los Angeles and playing for the Lakers to allow him to take things year-by-year, even if he doesn't ink pen to paper right away.
Still, they'd rather he sign it ASAP. LeBron's chances of doing so increase if he approves of the organizational direction — which will be evidenced by their upcoming offseason moves — and his faith in the front office.
With that context in mind, here's a quick refresher on the beef between LeBron and Phil:
In November 2016, when Phil was mired in a disastrous tenure as president of the New York Knicks — which didn't do his reputation any favors among the current generation of hoopers — he made this unfortunate comment to ESPN about LeBron leaving the Miami Heat.
“It had to hurt when they lost LeBron. That was definitely a slap in the face. But there were a lot of little things that came out of that. When LeBron was playing with the Heat, they went to Cleveland, and he wanted to spend the night. They don't do overnights. Teams just don't. So now Spoelstra has to text Riley and say, ‘What do I do in this situation?' And Pat, who has iron-fist rules, answers, ‘You are on the plane. You are with this team.' You can't hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland…LeBron likes special treatment. He needs things his way.”
LeBron and his business partner, Maverick Carter, clapped back.
“Zero,” LeBron retorted when asked if he had a personal connection with Jackson. “No relationship at all. I had nothing but respect for him as a coach for what he was able to do. Obviously, he was at the helm of (the team with) my favorite player of all time (Michael Jordan), and also being there growing up and watching him with the Lakers. But I got nothing for him.”
“I've been in the league for 14 years and from the beginning two years in, I felt like I wanted to put my guys in positions of power, give those guys an opportunity to better themselves. You know, in the beginning we were highly criticized and I was highly criticized about what I wanted to do to help some guys around me become very successful in business.
“It just sucks that now at this point having one of the biggest businesses you can have both on and off the floor, having a certified agent in Rich Paul, having a certified business partner in Maverick Carter that's done so many great business (deals), that the title for young African-Americans is the word ‘posse.'” If you go and read the definition of what the word ‘posse' is, it's not what I've built over my career. It's not what I stand for, it's not what my family stands for. I believe the only reason he used that word is because he sees young African-Americans trying to make a difference…If (Phil) says it out to the media, you can only imagine what he says when the camera is not on him or the headset or whatever you guys record on.”
Mav didn't hold back, either.
“It's the word ‘posse' and the characterization I take offense to,” Carter said. “If he would have said LeBron and his agent, LeBron and his business partners or LeBron and his friends, that's one thing. Yet because you're young and black, he can use that word. We're grown men.”
Jackson did not apologize.
Phil also burned bridges with LeBron's good friend Carmelo Anthony. After re-signing him to the Knicks, Jackson spent a season awkwardly souring on him via the media. Melo said he believed Phil would have traded him for a “bag of chips.” Phil eventually did trade Anthony, who is a good bet to play another season for the Lakers in 2022-23.
“When Phil came, he was just like, he cut that line of communication off me from the front office, from the staff members, even players,” Anthony said in Aug. 2021. “You know what I’m saying? The minute that I knew that was the game that was being played, like ‘Nah.'”
In the end, this might not be a huge deal. Unless Phil is more involved than we realize, it's unlikely LeBron would make a life-altering decision based on Jackson's informal consultation. But, at a tenuous moment between LeBron and the Lakers, it's not ideal to rub your superstar the wrong way.
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