LAKERS NOTEBOOK: JACKSON TO REACH MILEPOST.Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer DALLAS -- With all the attention paid to this week's games at San Antonio San Antonio (săn ăntō`nēō, əntōn`), city (1990 pop. 935,933), seat of Bexar co., S central Tex., at the source of the San Antonio River; inc. 1837. and Dallas, Lakers See Lake poets coach Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. could be forgiven for missing the significance of the milepost he will reach Saturday night in Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (1990 pop. 444,719), state capital, and seat of Oklahoma co., central Okla., on the North Canadian River; inc. 1890. The state's largest city, it is an important livestock market, a wholesale, distribution, industrial, and financial center, and a farm . The Lakers will play their 41st game of the season against the New Orleans Hornets The New Orleans Hornets are a professional basketball team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They play in the Southwest Division of the National Basketball Association (NBA). , and Jackson will be halfway through the three-year job of restoring the Lakers to prominence, for which he was enlisted in June 2005. By almost any measure, Jackson has succeeded beyond expectations. The Lakers returned to the playoffs last season, pushed the Phoenix Suns to sevengames in their first-round series and are on pace to win 50-plus games this season. Yet Jackson said his first consideration in evaluating his coaching future still is his recovery from hip-replacement surgery. ``It is a significant time,'' Jackson said, ``because I'm kind of measuring how it's going, what the next step is in the process of staying on top of my physical ability to push through a season. So far, I've really enjoyed this year. I'm still dubious about the physical ability. After this big road trip, I'll know more.'' Jackson stressed when he returned to the Lakers that he didn't expect to win a championship during his three years as coach. He was asked if he felt any closer to that ultimate goal. ``Well, granted that we have a couple guys that are injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. that can really contribute to our team this year,'' Jackson said. ``We're still, I think, a player away from considering ourselves at the top of the league.'' The coach also got a vote of confidence Thursday from his biggest star. ``I think he's doing his best coaching job,'' Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born July 23 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. said. ``I thought last year was the best coaching job of his career and this year he's topped that. He's not getting enough consideration -- or any consideration, really -- for coach of the year, which he should be.'' Party foul: Jackson was waiting to speak to Kwame Brown to decide whether the center will face disciplinary action in connection with an incident Saturday morning in which a man alleged that Brown took a birthday cake from him and threw it at him. ``I think it was poor choices, and there's something there to be said, but I want to talk to him first before I really speak on the issue,'' Jackson said. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion