Phil Jackson, the Wonder Years
ESPN Classic and NBA TV will simulcast Friday's ceremony of the 2007 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement ceremony at 4:30 p.m., and with it, the induction of Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
Prior to the ceremony, NBA TV has a one-hour special at 3:30 p.m. looking back at Jackson's playing and coaching career called "Phil Jackson: NBA Maverick," which is sure to upset Dallas owner Mark Cuban, although "Maverick" is the title of the book Charley Rosen co-wrote with Jackson back in 1975, following it up with "More Than a Game" in 2001.
Rosen is used as the basis for moving the Jackson special, but the show will also have what NBA TV says is rarely seen interviews and highlights with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, former Knicks coach Red Holtzman and former Bulls star Michael Jordan.
"As far as basketball is concerned, what I think got him was the warrior mentality they went into battle with 'It's a good day to die,'" Rosen says about Jackson, who was influenced by Native Americans while growing up in North Dakota and later playing for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. "He felt that was the way you had to approach a basketball game as ''This is the last basketball game you are ever going to play.'"
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" by Robert Pirsig, is another influence in Jackson's live introducted in the show. Gotta admit, that's in our top three books of all time. Read it as a freshman at Loyola Marymount back in the day and will refer to it often when I'm in one of those contemplative moods and don't have enough peyote to get into Carlos Castenada book. (All paths are the same: They lead to nowhere)...
The others inducted Friday include University of North Carolina head coach Roy Williams, four-time WNBA championship coach Van Chancellor, the late NBA referee Mendy Rudolph, international coaches Pedro Ferrandiz and Mirko Novosel, and the 1966 NCAA Champion Texas Western Miners, coached by Don Haskins and the basis of the movie, "Glory Road."