City News
Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson
Review by Samar
Behind every success story, there is always one person who contributes the most in order for
another person, or even a team, to become successful. In the biography Eleven Rings, by Phil
Jackson and Hugh Delehanty, former NBA coach Phil Jackson explains how he led both the Los
Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls to a combined total of nine championships. In the book,
Jackson also expounds about the many challenges he faced training young and overconfident
players, such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, into mature and selfless men. This not only
led to the players obtaining multiple championships, but also made them better people. In the
book, Jackson reveals all the ways he was able to make such big changes to both franchises,
which will all be revealed.
Before becoming a coach, Phil Jackson was a player in the NBA. He was drafted by the New
York Knicks in 1967. What made Jackson so different was his ability to play excellent defense
and his unselfish, team-oriented style of play, which he would later implement in both the
Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. During his time as a player, Phil Jackson won two
championships, one in 1970 and the other in 1973. As a child, Phil Jackson admired the sport of
basketball. He wasn’t allowed to play it much because his parents restricted him. Both of
Jackson’s parents were preachers and urged Jackson to explore his religion and not focus on
anything else, not even sports. Phil Jackson, along with his siblings, wasn’t able to sit with
friends at lunch or go to parties. During the time he was a player, Jackson discovered that he had
the talented abilities of a leader, which he later used to decide that he would become a coach
after retiring. After an average career as a player, Phil Jackson took a break from basketball for 9
years. In the year 1989, Phil was appointed as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls. During this
time, Jackson explains the difficulties he had trying to coach Michael Jordan. Jordan, at the time,
was a very selfish but talented player. He would very rarely pass the ball and took the weight of
the entire team on his shoulders. His antics made the rest of the team frustrated and made them
want to avoid passing the ball to Jordan. In his nine years coaching the Bulls, Jackson was able
to turn Michael Jordan into a selfless player by urging the team to spend time together outside of
basketball. Jackson also implemented a new style of play, the triangle offense. The offense
allowed for two players to be uncovered by defenders, only if the other three players would do
their jobs correctly. This technique not only worked, but it also allowed for the players to gain
trust in one another. The outcome of this trust was six championships. One player who stood out
more than Michael Jordan at this time was Scottie Pippen. Although Jordan scored more, Pippen
was more selfless and was able to adapt to change quicker than anyone else on his team. In the
year 1998, many of the players on the Bulls were approaching their mid 30’s, which posed as a
challenge for the team as a whole. At this time, many of the main players on the team had retired
and Phil Jackson moved on to coach another young and selfish team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Phil Jackson claimed that coaching the Lakers was more of a challenge than coaching the Bulls.
This is due to the fact that the team had many young players that wanted to make a name for
themselves rather than help the team win a championship together. The biggest challenge for Phil Jackson was coaching the young and success-driven player, Kobe Bryant. Kobe, at the time, was very cocky because he was just a kid who came to the NBA out of high school. He wanted to be the best NBA player to ever exist, and if anybody was better than him, he was willing to work twice as hard to be the best. Another challenge Phil faced during his time coaching the Lakers was the feud between Kobe and Shaquille O’Neal. Both Kobe and Shaq wanted the Lakers to be their team, and neither of them was willing to back down. This feud was very bitter and lasted for three years. Over time, though, both Shaq and Kobe were tired of fighting and decided to work together. During this time, the team had won three championships together. Then, Shaq became a free agent and joined the Miami Heat. Luckily, the Lakers obtained another selfless and talented center, Pau Gasol. Pau instantly became friends with Kobe and the two would lead the Lakers to two more championships. In the year 2004, Phil Jackson decided that he was done with basketball and that he was going to retire. To this day, Phil writes books about how he was able to become a great coach, just by implementing a selfish way of play in the teams he coached.
In my opinion, Eleven Rings, is one of the best basketball biographies out there. This book will
teach you about how to succeed in life alongside being selfless and humble. I would rate this
book a ⅘ stars. I definitely recommend it to anyone else looking for a book to read that contains
a moral in it as well.