Customer Reviews

Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Phil Jackson is one of the most complex figures in the history of American professional sports. Widely adored and held in the highest of esteem by fans in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and the world over, Jackson has built a career on finding success through a variety of unconventional approaches. Interpreting his actions and discerning his motives could easily prove a daunting task for any biographer. If anything redeems this effort, it is the insight offered by Tex Winter himself, who has granted me numerous candid interviews over the past half dozen seasons. Long known for his frankness about the high-priced stars he coaches, Winter has taken the same approach with his own boss. He admires Jackson yet never hesitates to criticize him. Jackson, for his part, seems to accept this criticism as part of his relationship with his mentor. In fact, the coach clearly relies on Winter's frankness, never mind that it frequently annoys him. "Phil would like to control me," Winter offered during an interview in February 2000. "But he knows he can't." Jackson has complained privately that I somehow duped Winter into providing inside detail for my 1998 book about the Bulls, "Blood On The Horns." Yet it was Jackson himself who volunteered most of the truly sensitive information during our interviews. It was Jackson who told me of the bathroom battles between Michael Jordan and Bulls VP Jerry Krause. And it was Jackson who revealed Scottie Pippen's drunken verbal assault on Krause on a team bus in Seattle that year. I've interviewed Jackson several times over the years and have always found him to be forthcoming about events, even when the information he provides casts himself in a negative light. By no means is this an authorized biography. As much as Jackson would prefer that I not write it, he has taken no steps to restrict my access to his team or to people who might provide information about him. As a result, Winter has offered some refreshing insight into a complicated figure. I have also drawn heavily on Jackson's own published works, especially his first autobiography, "Maverick, More Than A Game," a rawer, more daring account of his early life than his 1995 title "Sacred Hoops" provided. Beyond Winter and Jackson's own works, my effort was aided immensely by a host of interviews and published material. When all was said and done, Tex Winter read the manuscript and declared that it was excellent. Tough but excellent. For Winter's help and guidance, I'm immensely thankful.

Having always been intrigued by Phil Jackson as a coach and a person, I was thrilled to see that an account of his interesting career and life had been published. Being a coach myself, I had always wanted to find how this living legend's mind works and maybe try to apply some of his ideas/concepts to my coaching. That was the reason that I had devoured "Sacred Hoops" as soon as it came out back in 95-96.

I was also excited to see "the value" that the book offers: 400 pages..."Not bad" I thought, and I went ahead and ordered the book right away!

The content of the book did not disappoint me one bit. It is nicely structured (chronologically) and it gives quite an insight and quite a few details of Jackson's life. Usually a slow reader, I breezed through this nicely written piece of work by Lazenby. I especially enjoyed the quotes from interviews and informal discussions that either Jackson himself or people he was associated with had given in the past. I also really liked the fact that the book includes Jackson's first season in LA. I think this adds tremendous value to the book: it makes its publishing a lot more timely and therefore more appealing.

My only couple of concerns with this publication are the following: a) The book seems to repeat itself at times mentioning the same thing over and over maybe from a different perspective but the same information/idea none-the-less. I apologize for not having a good example of this handy, but I wasn't taking notes while I was reading... b) The book is a little too "superficial" for my taste. Jackson is such a complicated and unique person and I think this book makes little or no attempt to try and "decipher" him. I am not sure, however, that that was even the intent of the author to begin with. Maybe all Lazenby wanted to do was give an account of Jackson's life and not really try to judge/critique his coaching techniques or philosophies. Regardless, I felt that since the author seems to "know" Jackson so well, he should have tried to offer an opinion on some of the controversial decisions in his personal or professional life.

Overall, I'd say that anyone interested in Jackson should get this book. Lazenby gives you an objective account of Jackson's life (the good AND the bad; unlike many autobiographies...) and one will have a great time reading through the stories and looking at the pictures.

Should a basketball (or other) coach get the book though in order to maybe "gain some coaching knowledge"? I wouldn't think so...

As someone who has read "Sacred Hoops" three times and follows Phil Jackson's coaching career very closely, I was very excited to see this on the shelf at my local bookstore. This was a good book. I breezed through it. I thought it was very well written, and it did have some interesting anecdotes. In my opionion, probably the most interesting part of the book wasn't even about Coach Jackson, but rather about the people who have worked with him. The short biopics of the Chicago Jerrys, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, and others were very interesting to me - and very fair (which is tough these days when you read anything about Krause).

On the other end of the stick, I would agree that the book did seem a tad superficial as far as Jackson is concerned. It promises to give you insight into one of the most complex figures in contemporary sports, but really does not do that. It only touches superifically on his connection to Buddhism, meditation, and his relationships outside of basketball. Indeed, the end of Jackson's second marriage - certainly one of the more important influences in his life - is entirely covered in one short paragraph of a few sentences.

All in all, this was a decent book. However, I won't be reading it again.

I have always been intrigued by the work of the "Zenmaster," which is why I first decided to read this book. I had heard about Jackson's work in mending the rift between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and had wondered how he did it when others could not. The first 100 pages of this book delve into the mind of this phenomenal coach, but the rest of the book goes on to name his achievements. Yes, it was interesting to learn a little more about Michael Jordan, Pippen, Grant and Rodman but those guys were not the reason I picked up the book. If I wanted to learn about those players, I would have read "The Jordan Rules." Bottom line, I would rather pick up "Sacred Hoops" or "Maverick", which were actually written by Jackson himself.

This is an easy read... But you have to hash through a lot of common knowledge about the Bulls to get any interesting tidbits about Jackson. Sacred Hoops gives you much more perspective into Jackson than this book does. The author teases the reader with an opening story about how Jackson smokes two cigarettes and drinks a beer before he talked to the Bulls after a game... A great bit of informaion, but many true Bulls fans could have picked this up the the local papers or sports talk shows... The author gets most of his inside information from Tex Schram, Johnny Bach, and Skip Schaefer. The majority of the book is a general chronicle of the Bulls 8 year 6 title run offering few insights on Jackson. If you followed the Bulls, read Sacred Hoops, the only 'fresh' information comes from the last two chapters about Jackson's year off and some information about Jackson's first year with the Lakers. It reads quick, but do not expect learn any new in depth information about Jackson.

I really enjoy NBA basketball and I have watched DVDs of a number of the Bull's and Michael Jordan's great games of the 90s, but my knowledge of the game and players is fairly basic and I am not a "fanatic" about the sport. From that perspective, Mindgames is a very readable and enjoyable book. It also has a lot of interesting information about Jackson, and Chicago and LA players, without being "overly detailed." The author based his book on an incredible number of interviews and he uses numerous quotes from important sources, which adds a lot to the story as it unfolds chronologically. The book is very thorough in covering Jackson's Chicago years and his first year at LA. It gives what seems to be a very honest and fair picture of Jackson that is very positive overall. The only thing I didn't like were the numerous stories of the conflicts Chicago VP Jerry Krause had with Jackson as well as with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. These are scattered throughout 100 pages of the 400 page book. They are part of the chronological history but I tired of them after awhile. Were it not for that, I'd probably give the book five stars.

When i order this book i thought it would be more all about Phil Jackson. But this book lost its way somhow. Yes you get many things about Phil but this is so mutch about the Bulls and so many things that Phil has litle to do with and the book is so mutch talking about the same things over and over again.
But the good:
I love the NBA and to read about the Bulls in the 90s and the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe is great fun. I learn some new stuff about Phil(i have read two other books about him) and how he see the game. This is the greatest coach in the history of the game.
If you want to know about Phil then this is just a okey book but if you want to learn about the 90s Bulls this is a great book.

This is a good book. I like Spiritual Hoops a little better even though Mind Games has 11 years more current information. Still, with Phil Jackson winning a record 10th NBA championship this year by reforming a relationship with a player he identified 5 years ago as "uncoachable," it's time for an update from him or about him. Maybe some day he will permit someone with insight to sit down and interview him extensively to develop a more complete picture. There is no question that he is an interesting man, and he does not quite get his due recognition given his achievements.

The book definitely discusses in detail, Phil Jackson's zen/indian philiosophies and techniues, and his propensity to use such things to create champions.

Other interesting areas include his background coaching in a turbulent, out of control south American league, where drunken fights in the stands were the norm and bullets weren't restricted to the stands.

Discussions of his idiosyncracies as a player, and the mentoring he received as a coach, especially when learning/incorporating the triangle offense, are also definitely worth a read.

The books discussions of his behind-the-scenes experience with management, in team meetings, and on the tour bus reveal him as an expert in "playing politics." Despite its somewhat negative connotation, his "Mind Games" (also the book's title) appear ro have contributed to his tremendous professional success (NBA Championship rings).

However, his somewhat antagonisitic actions towards team ownership and media have left him with a somewhat questionable reputation. The book discusses this in detail. For example, without provocation, he once kicked a reporter off the team bus, leaving her stranded, and regularly exiled the team's owner from meetings). The book explains the rationale for these actions. Jackson sees "team solidarity" as a crucial aspect of "building the team spirit" and allowing it to grow.

In addition, the book is fairly current and details his brief, ongoing career with the Lakers, revealing some surprisingly esoteric insights about the team and his role in it.

His unorthodox, yet wildly successful NBA coaching career make this an interesting and thoughtful read. However, this review ranks the book four stars out of five, simply because the book's meticulously long discussions seasons' worth of quasi-important matches on the hardwood floor becomes a bit redundant and irrelevant(playoff/championship games excluded).

But if you're a basketball fan, a Lakers' fan, a Bulls' fan, or are simply intrigued by the man and his phenomenally successful, yet wholistically unorthodox approach to life, interpersonal relations, and success, this book comes highly recommended.

Rob Rumsey

Don't bother buying this. It's pretty much a rehash of what's already been written by this author and others (often word for word). Go the bookstore and skip to the section on the Lakers for anything you might have missed.