The Eternal Triangle

Coach and Athletic Director, Sept, 2001 by Herman L. Masin

EVER SINCE A BASKETBALL coach named Phil Jackson introduced his triangle offense to the NBA, he has become a wonder of the world, winning six championships with the Bulls and two with the Lakers.

Sure, he has had legendary athletes, but his unique offense has had a lot to do with it, too. And thereupon hangs a tale. Jackson admits he did not invent his unique offense. He merely hired the brilliant old college coach who had invented it.

Check the Laker bench. The 79-year-old wizard sitting beside Jackson at every practice and game, overseeing the wondrous deux et machina of the Jackson-coached teams, is the inventor, Tex Winter.

We admit: Like most basketball artisans, we'd have trouble diagramming the triangle offense from what we see of it on TV But... until somebody proves otherwise, we have it all in writing!

Forty years ago, when Tex Winter was in the process of winning eight conference championships at Kansas State, we asked him to write an article on the offense with which he was devastating the Midwest. Tex made our year with "Kansas State's Triangular Sideline Series." It appeared in the December 1960 Scholastic Coach and was introduced by Tex in this fashion:

"Kansas State runs a diversified offense consisting of 12 different series predicated upon four basic patterns (though we don't use more than three at any one time).

"Our sideline triangular series is the first set of options we teach and constitutes a total offense within itself."

From there, Tex went on to break down his offense with 15 diagrams and four columns of text.

We wish we could say -- absolutely or at least positively -- that this is exactly the way that Tex is using it in the pros. But we believe it has to be close enough. The accompanying photo shows Tex putting it up on the blackboard at a clinic a long, long time ago.

As he approaches age 80, Tex has undoubtedly made a Winter wonderland out of the Shaq he has built in L.A.

WINTER ADVISORY

When Tex Winter was the boy-wonder of coaching at Kansas State, here is the way he taught his famous Triangle Offense--which, at age 79, he is still doing for the Los Angeles Lakers!