Customer Reviews

The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you were one of the many who believed that when the Lakers put 4 future Hall of Fame players on the court they would certainly win a championship, then this book goes a long to describing why a team of basketball players with less talent beat them decisively.

Phil opens up on the behind the scenes squabbles, pettiness and egos so large they simply defy explanation. In one example, Kobe Bryant is offered the use of a plane by the Lakers to make his trips back to a Colorado courtroom for his alleged rape trial, and instead of being grateful for the support his team is giving him financially, is mad because he thought he deserved a bigger plane.

The book is full of the insights into the battles between Kobe and Shaq. Imagine two first graders with 100 million dollars each and you start to get close to the level of professionalism and emotional maturity. It is often funny, often sad, and usually just shocking.

The book is written very well, a breeze to read through, and a fascinating tale of psychological narcissism gone wild. I recommend highly for fans of the NBA, or just anyone who is interested in team dynamics. It will also explain why the Lakers got beat so easily by a team with far less talent. A lesson to leaders in organizations everywhere.

I agree with previous reviewers in that truly insightful books on the NBA (or other sports) tend to be few and far between. The reason, one can suspect, is that everyone wants to cover their behinds, protect their endorsement dollars and preserve any chance of being hired again. This is what makes Phil's book so interesting and entertaining to read. His account of what transpired behind the scenes of the Lakers' fabled season is at times shocking (the immaturity of certain players/coaches/agents is staggering), at times funny, and always honest. Phil has a disarmingly serene style, and his words feel measured yet honest and never manipulative. He is mature enough to put the blame on himself at times, and his candor is in contrast with the 'he said/she said' going on with the Lakers. I know that for many people the Lakers were the Evil Empire, the Yankees of basketball, but I would recommend this work to anyone with a love for basketball, and also anybody who thinks they know how things are behind the scenes. Good stuff.

On one hand, after reading this book one can only marvel at the fact that the Lakers even made it to the NBA finals this past year. On the other hand, it's also quite evident why the Lakers failed and ultimately were broken up.

Former Coach Phil Jackson let's loose both barrels squarely aimed at troubled star Kobe Bryant.

He details the pettiness involved in the constant battles with Shaq and Kobe. About how Kobe complained about the quality of the jet which flew Kobe from his courtroom appearances in Colorado back to LA.

Phil documents how he had wanted to trade Kobe as long ago as the 2000 season but was denied by Lakers Owner Jerry Buss, in whose eyes Kobe can do no wrong.

Phil documents how he comlained to GM Mitch Kupchack that he could no longer coach Kobe but his hands were tied and it was at that point that Phil knew he would not return for the 2004-2005 season.

Ultimately the house of cards came crumbling down in the NBA finals against the Detroit Pistons. Another person argued that the Pistons were not as talented...a fact that I whole-heartedly disagree with.

The Lakers certainly had the two best players...but the best TEAM was the Pistons. A team that worked harder, and a team with underrated but up and coming stars that was too quick, too resilient for the aging Lakers to deal with.

Quite a read!

Phil Jackson's book isn't packed with gossip and revelations like I thought it would be. Truth be told, all the gossipy stuff about Kobe Bryant came out in the excerpts in the press before the book was released on Oct. 21.

For such a fascinating train-wreck of a team that the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers were, Jackson's book comes across as a little dull. I'm a die-hard Laker fan and most of the information here I had already gathered from reading the newspapers or watching ESPN.

This book is a very fast read. In its pages you get insight into Jackson's unorthodox coaching techniques (meditation, Eastern philosophy, etc.), how he copes with the intrusive sports press, how he massages the Lakers' gargantuan egos, and how he manages a relationship with his boss's daughter (who also happens to be a Laker executive).

The part of the book detailing the regular season has some juicy behind-the-scenes details, but if you've read the excerpts, then you know them already. By the time you get to the 2004 playoffs, it's nothing but basketball jargon.

The sudden implosion of the Lakers following their NBA Finals defeat was jarring and Jackson covers it well. Overall, Jackson's relationship with Kobe Bryant is more complex than the newspapers will have you believe. Kobe is portrayed as a supremely talented but tragically narcissistic character whose search for happiness through basketball will ultimately prove unfulfilling. He's not the next Michael Jordan, folks. As a matter of fact, he's not even CLOSE.

Shaq is portrayed as a big baby and has his flaws, but overall is a good person with a terrific sense of humor. It's telling that Phil Jackson writes how he turned down an executive position with the Lakers, partly in protest of L.A. trading O'Neal to Miami.

Jackson is a little more humane with Gary Payton than I would have been, but that's just me. Karl Malone comes across as a true pro as do Derek Fisher and Rick Fox--the ultimate team guys. Jackson also believes that Devean George wastes his talents on the hardwood, but anyone who regularly follows the Lakers already knows that.

Perhaps the saddest section of the book comes when the Lakers cut role player Jannero Pargo for salary cap reasons. His tearful goodbye to the team is the most moving part of the book. It also illustrates a common, but frequently ignored facet of professional sports: the cold realities of a talented athlete who has to face the fact that he is unable to compete at the professional level.

Overall, I still like the NBA, but Jackson's so-so book only hints upon the broader problem with a league that focuses too much on individual talent and not enough on team skills. The implosion of the Lakers should be a warning to the league to change its act and its marketing skills or professional basketball might end up like (*GULP!*) hockey.

OHHHHHH Man!!!!! This was unbelievable! Having been a die hard Laker fan for monst of my life and having followed the Last season of the "Dream Team" every second, it was great to get an inside perspective on what was really going on this year. I have wanted for such a long time, i figured it would only be when he retired, to be able to get into Phil's head. How the mind of the most brilliant basketball coach on the planet works. I never understood his lack of emotion. I understand things soo much better and my respect for Phil Jackson has risen to new levels. Phil was a coach of character. He did not coach in a way that was compromising to what's popular or what everyone else is doing but what he believed to be best for his team. He tried to bring out the best in all of his players and was often disappointed if a player was not playing up to his potential. I've also come to another major conclusion. There doesn't seem to be any sense of Integrity in the Lakers management. I have new opinions of Kobe Bryant as well. It is just sad to see that what could have been maybe anywhere from 6 to 10 championships...even before the other two hall of famers came, if they would have just put there pride aside and play as a unit. Detroit spanked them with a lesson I hope we all never forget. The best "Team" wins. This was soo awesome to be able to read behind the scenes of the games talked about in the book. I watched everyone including the pre-season games and it was just sweet to read more of the story. I bet Phil will be back coaching someday.

As an avid NBA fan, I have found it very difficult to find books that give deeper insight into the game. Most NBA biographies use supericial facts and quotes to tell a generic story but never get to the deeper issues and conflicts that occur in all NBA locker rooms. In many ways, much of what goes on in the NBA is careully guarded. This book breaks that barrier with a colorful and often painful look into the championship Lakers.

I couldn't put the book down. Jackson paints a telling picture of the dysfunctional Lakers and the tactics today's NBA coach must employ to get glorified adulated millionaires to play as a "we" and not and "I." What I like most about Jackson's accounting is that he doesn't seek to use this book as a PR piece for himself but rather as a release of the tremendous pressure he endured and the conflicts that it created within himself.

I found it highly interesting and revealing that this book has had a tremendous backlash from the sports establishment. Obviously, they are afraid this book takes some of the shine off the league. In my estimation though, it gets to the heart of what we find most interesting about pro-sports - the emotions, turmoil and conflicts of humans existing in a surreal environment. Jackson himself remarks that pro-basketball is of little consequence in the bigger picture of life.

Jackson's interactions with Kobe Bryant are fascinating as are his beliefs as to what is at the center of Bryant's own inner conflicts. I've admired Jackson for years for his ability to defy conventionality in order to acheive extraordinary success. The very fact that a book of this nature was actually published again demonstrates his ability to break down long-standing barries/status quos within the NBA establishment.

A must read for die-hard NBA fans.

I like Phil. I believe he's one of the greatest coach ever to coach in the NBA. This book is very insightful on his thinking on getting the team together, his challenge on keeping everything in control, and what he went through coaching an extremely talent team with a lot of mishaps. Yeah, he does bring out the dirt on kobe, shaq, and payton. But he also speaks highly of their talents. It's too bad the team didn't fully understand and implement the triangle offense during the playoffs. I am sure we'll see Phil again in a year or two. He loves this game too much to sit out too long. I think he should coach the Seattle Super Sonics. It's a short distance from Seattle to Montana. He would love the Pacific Northwest. The trees, the mountains, the streams, the fresh air, the misty rain, the clear skies.

Seldom is a book like this written so quickly about public figures. Phil Jackson basically kept a diary of last year and his feelings of the players and how he molds his teams. Now, I'm sure the plan was to have the book close with a World Championship. But instead he got a dysfunctional family with a key member under felony indictment, two new family members who struggle to adapt, and a disappointing finish.

Admittedly, in some parts your thinking that you shouldn't be reading this as he pulls no punches on his personal feelings about players and management. But if you are a Laker fan it makes for a fascinating read. And if you are a basketball aficionado, you are subjected in small doses to basketball theory and how Jackson applied them in his job.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. However, I suspect after the initial publicity this book will not have great legs. I came away with an improved image of Shaq and Karl Malone (if it's possible to think higher of a great warrior) and curiosity on how Kobe's relationships with Shaq and Phil can be so strained. A quick read, I strongly recommend you make your own judgment if you have strong interest in basketball or the Lakers.

Phil Jackson's coaching legacy might still have been in doubt following his second Michael Jordan-orchestrated three-peat. After all, Jordan's talent, leadership, and determination had amounted to an irresistible force--leaving the Zen Master with seemingly little to do but sit and hum to himself while contemplating his rings. Who, blessed with such circumstances, could fail to appear serene?

And then he took on the Lakers. Sure, we know, L.A. was loaded with talent and had not only one potentially dominant player, but two. How could he fail? For starters, he was not the first coach to try to take this group to the top. It may have looked easy, but so far it hadn't been done. And these two particular stars seemed focused not on dominating other teams so much as their own. From what the Master has revealed in this book and promotional interviews, not to mention what played out on NBA and in Colorado courts this past season, one had to wonder if Jackson should not be re-dubbed Dr. Phil--and if he should not have been tempted to escape this dishonorable situation through a traditional ceremony involving his own sword.

I want to thank Phil Jackson for writing this book. It apparently takes someone with more insight or clarity than is possessed by the mainstream sports media to make what should be an obvious point. How else to explain what has apparently been regarded as its revelatory message: that Kobe Bryant is difficult and selfish? Big shock, there. Kobe's biggest criticism of the book, in fact, is likely that it is not ALL about Kobe.

Lest we forget, Kobe Bryant has been accused of raping a young woman hotel employee in Colorado. Kobe had left his beautiful, young wife and their infant daughter at home to travel to Colorado for knee surgery. It might have been a bit much to ask that Kobe should worry about the outcome of this procedure on a body part on which he and his family depended for his continued success and prosperity. He had other things on his mind apparently--because his defense is that the sex he had with this complete stranger, reportedly minutes after meeting her, was consensual. That's right: She wanted it, and so did he.

Why is this a big point with regard to this book? Because the sports media made such a big deal out of Bryant's "courage" and determination when he would fly in a private jet from a courthouse in Colorado to a game in L.A. and knock down thirty-plus points. I heard words such as "character" used on TV to explain his performance. This to describe a guy who had just offered up adultery as a defense in a rape case, and was sufficiently untroubled by either the impact of this situation or his statements on his wife and daughter or his relationships with them, the PR disaster his actions posed for his employer and his endorsement products, or the reputations of everyone involved, that he could go right out and play basketball at a phenomenal level. Being in the zone is one thing. Living with your head in the ozone is another. But basketball is Kobe's stage. And when he is on that stage and playing well, things are just how he likes them to be: all about Kobe.

Now that he has driven the most successful NBA coach of the past twenty years out of the game, and the most dominant player in the league out of town, L.A., too, can now be all about Kobe. What is unfathomable is why the Laker organization was so bent on banishing these two stable corners of its triangle offense even while it remained far from a slam dunk that a jury would allow the third to be handling the ball at all next year.

Thank you, Mr. Jackson, for contributing more to the game than Kobe Bryant ever could, and more to our understanding of this shameful episode than all of the groupie reporters tagging along behind him combined.

James D. Chlovechok, M.D., author of the Sports Thriller GAME FACE.

Disclaimer: I am a Sacramento Kings season ticket holder. That noted, I admit that I bought The Last Season largely to enjoy reading about the demise of the Lakers. I was not disappointed.

Jackson writes this book in journal form and often skips days or even weeks at a time. He rambles and muses. The reader can not help but wonder how much editing was done after the fact. Regardless, it is like being a fly on Jackson's therapist's wall. It is an entertaining read even if not particularly news. Some re-runs are worth watching.

Jackson doesn't give up the dirt on Kobe and certainly not Shaq. He does mention weaknesses in his players and others, but he generally balances his criticism with a compliment. The cynic in me wonders what Jackson would write if he knew he would never coach again and could remain hidden in Montana for the rest of his life.

This book is an easy read. If you are a basketball fan, this book is fun. However, since the book is largely a rerun, I recommend waiting until the paper back edition comes out.

Four Stars