Sam Smith

Phil Jackson likes to tell a story from his childhood that he doesn't exactly remember. It involves his brother, Joe, leaving open the protective gate at the top of the staircase in the church building where the Jackson family lived. Jackson's parents were Pentacostal ministers and Phil was the youngest. Ever adventurous, li'l Phil rode his stroller to the edge and tumbled down, knocking himself unconscious at the bottom.

So, you say, that's why he acts like he does.

Perhaps that's why he introduces meditation and Native American chanting to his team, why he discusses the ramifications of American incursions on players' children along with fly fishing.

Some years ago, well into his championship years with the Bulls, Jackson was talking with one of his siblings about his still stifled ambitions. Perhaps politics with old teammate Bill Bradley. Or maybe a law degree, which he was about to pursue when then Bulls general manager Jerry Krause hired him as an assistant to Doug Collins. Maybe back to private business, where he had been while in his early coaching practice in the CBA.

Jackson never considered himself a jock, a lifer. Sports was to satisfy his competitive urge and provide the springboard to his serious future, whatever that would be.

"But Phil," he was counseled, "you do this so well. Why would you leave it?"

Well Jackson didn't leave, and the rest of us are now getting a chance to watch the best ever do what he does best.

Perhaps in the next two weeks, when his Los Angeles Lakers play the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, Jackson will coach his 10th NBA championship team, breaking the all-time tie with Red Auerbach.

Maybe it's next season or the season after with a big, young core and Kobe Bryant, undoubtedly the game's best player and in his prime. Though more likely it's another championship run like Jackson had in the 1990's with the Bulls, during which Jackson may shatter the ceiling on coaching success no one ever imagined.

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Choosing the best at what he does, especially in sports, is difficult and arbitrary.

Was Michael Jordan better than Wilt Chamberlain? Was Babe Ruth better than Henry Aaron and Willie Mays? Was Walter Payton better than Jim Brown? It's all debatable.

Auerbach has long been considered the standard in which pro coaching is measured, John Wooden in college coaching.

I would say now, especially if the favored Lakers win the NBA championship this season, Jackson will be considered — in record book and reality — the best ever to coach the game.

Especially with this Lakers team because there is no way, especially a year ago, when anyone considered the Lakers championship material. And even now despite the key acquisition of Pau Gasol, this Lakers team is hardly the so called "loaded" teams Jackson inherited in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Of course, no one had won a championship before with those teams and those same players.

Jackson sometimes has been dismissed for winning with great players, as if great players only win championships.

But the Bulls improved under Jackson in wins in each of their first three seasons with the same personnel and won six championships in eight seasons. The Lakers won titles with the same personnel the first three seasons under Jackson and made the Finals four of five seasons.

And now in an encore with the Lakers, they are back in the Finals in the third season.

By virtually any statistical measure of coaching in NBA history, Jackson is No. 1.

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