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It's Psychology 101 with Jackson in mix
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 6, 2008 by Brad Rock Deseret News
LOS ANGELES -- Loooook into my eyes.
You are getting sleepy.
Verrrrrrry sleepy.
OK, maybe that's a little heavy on the hypnotic hocus-pocus. Still, that's kind of how it is in a series involving Lakers' coach Phil Jackson.
It's all in the mind.
It has been 10 years since the Jazz were in a playoff series involving Jackson, but they probably haven't missed it. The positioning. The lobbying. The Vulcan mind-melding.
The psychology of it all.
He was Dr. Phil before that other Dr. Phil even had a job.
If anyone has forgotten, this what happens when you face a Jackson team. There's the game on the court and the game in the head.
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So it continued, Monday, when Jackson addressed the issue of free throw shooting. L.A.'s Kobe Bryant got a whopping 23 attempts on Sunday, a club playoff record, and made 21, also a record.
"I doubt that'll happen again," said Jackson. "They throw lot of bodies at us. They're not afraid to go play hard and let the referees make a decision on it. They'll contest shots and they have three or four guys they can move around on defense so they can all accumulate fouls, so we'll see what happens that way."
Already, it seems, Jackson is lobbying for favor from the officials, calling the Jazz's physical style "a scrum match."
"Well, they play a very physical game," added Jackson.
"They bring the element up and just let the referees make a decision upon what is a foul and what isn't, and it escalates. But they play well under those circumstances. They must practice like that -- contest it in their practices -- because their people all play that way."
Unspoken message: Beware, refs, or the Jazz will turn this into mud wrestling.
This series features Jerry Sloan, the plain-talking pragmatist, and Jackson, the hippie existentialist. Jerry the Farmer vs. Phil the Shrink.
It's not as though there has ever been open animosity between Sloan and Jackson. But it's obvious they're not good buddies. Sloan has more than his share of friends and admirers in the business, Detroit's Flip Saunders, San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, Houston's Rick Adelman and Portland's Nate McMillan, to name a few.
Somewhere else on the spectrum is Jackson.
They don't exactly trade insults, but they don't exchange Christmas cards, either.
In a way, it's odd they're aren't best friends. Jackson is from Deer Lodge, Mont., Sloan from McLeansboro, Ill. Jackson went to high school in North Dakota and college at the University of North Dakota. Sloan played his college basketball at Evansville.
Just a couple of small town guys in the big show.
"When I first got (to Utah), it was, like, different,"
said former Jazz guard Derek Fisher. "But after being there for a while I started to see other than just personality -- Phil being one man and Jerry being another man in terms of their experiences and their background and their personalities. Basketball-wise, I saw a lot of similarities."
Yet while Sloan claims he's just a simple-minded farmer, Jackson has written books on the mental aspects of basketball. This is the guy who passed out copies of philosophy books to his team and asked players to meditate with him.
"Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together," he once said.
Same guy who came to Salt Lake during the 1997 NBA Finals and called Mormonism "a cult."
He complained constantly about the Jazz's physical style and proclaimed John Stockton as dirty as Dennis Rodman, the only difference being their off-court lifestyles.
Not that Salt Lake gets treated differently than anyone else. Jackson did the same thing to Sacramento several years ago in the playoffs and called the California capital "a cow town."
The objective is to get officials on his side, or maybe simply to get under the opponents' skin. Before this series is over, he will undoubtedly comment on the night life, the weather and -- to be sure -- the uncouthness of the Jazz crowd.
So far, his approach has worked. The man has won nine NBA titles, tied for most in coaching history.
Once you get inside someone's head, it's hard to get you out.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com
Copyright C 2008 Deseret News Publishing Co.
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