Phil Jackson will coach his last game at Madison Square Garden Friday night as the L.A. Lakers visit the New York Knicks for the only time this season (8 PM Eastern, ESPN). Jackson has been adament in declaring that this will be his final season prowling NBA sidelines.
Lakers Game Against Knicks Will Be Phil Jackson’s Farewell To Madison Square Garden
The 11-time NBA champion coach has won plenty in MSG, both as coach of the Chicago Bulls and the Lakers and during his playing days; Jackson spent 10 of his 12 seasons with the Knicks, helping the ‘Bockers win a title in 1973. (He missed the entire 1969-70 Knicks’ title season due to injury.) Under Red Holzman, Jackson was a key roleplaying forward for the Knicks through the best span in the franchise’s history. He later killed the Knicks at the head of Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Jackson’s squad knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs four times, and only lost a series to New York once (during MJ’s first retirement).
Other than Chicago or L.A., no town but New York has real resonance in Jackson’s NBA career, a storied tenure in which he registered as a champion in three of the past four decades. Unlike so many others who kill New York, Jackson is still revered at MSG, and the reverence is shared. As Jackson says goodbye to the Garden on Friday, keep in mind that while Jackson isn’t the warm-fuzzy type, he understand history and his place in it.
“As many great games have been played there, I think I’ve been in a ton of them,” Jackson said Wednesday, reminiscing (but only a little) over lunch. “It’s probably the most familiar building I have in my history as a player and coach.”
Instead of going out with a bang like Jerry Sloan, Jackson is taking his farewell tour. I dare say no other stop will have as much weight as the one he’ll make Friday night.
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