Phil Jackson: Lakers Offered Job That Went To D'Antoni
Phil Jackson is saying he was offered the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job before the team ultimately hired the much maligned Mike D’Antoni. Appearing on the Dan Patrick Show, Jackson said “ they wanted to hear me out and I wanted to hear them out.”
When directly asked by Patrick if he felt he was offered the job, Jackson responded: “I would answer yes to that question. It was proposed to me without any hesitation.”
Patrick then inquired “what happened in the 11th hour,” and if Jackson felt he perhaps left the team hanging, prompting them to go in a different direction and ultimately settle on D’Antoni.
“Yeah, I would say that’s fair,” Jackson told Patrick. “D’Antoni. “Obviously, at the end of the process ], Mitch Kupchak had asked to come along with Jim Buss and at the end of the process Mitch said you know I’m going to have to continue interviewing people for the job. If you turn this down, I have to be prepared to move on.”
Jackson later told Patrick he never suspected that D-Antoni would be a candidate for the position, partly because he was still recovering from knee surgery. If rumors now emanating out of Laker Land are really true, Jackson may yet again have his opportunity.
Word is such that free-agent center Dwight Howard told Kupchak in a private, season-ending exit interview that he feels he was misused by D’Antoni as well as overlooked by him in terms of being a potential team leader.
Jackson has been making the rounds over the last few days promoting his new book “Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success,” in which he favorably compares Michael Jordan to Bryant, both of whom he coached to a combine 11 NBA title.
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