Mike Celizic

Phil Jackson had his pick of jobs. If he had wanted maximum money and media exposure along with a challenge of gargantuan proportions, he could have gone with the Knicks. If he had wanted to coach the next gigastar, there was Cleveland and LeBron waiting.

If he had wanted a team that was at the championship level, Sacramento and Minnesota would have taken him in a heartbeat. If he had wanted to get off the beaten track and be closer to his mountain home, Portland would have welcomed him.

Instead, Jackson took his nine rings and hopes for a record-breaking tenth back to Los Angeles and the dysfunctional and badly constructed Lakers team that helped him to the door less than a year ago.

You can look at the move and take it as proof that Michael Jackson isn’t the only person with a few loose neurons in Southern California. Or, you can note that Jackson’s girlfriend is Jeanie Buss, the daughter of the Lakers owner and a team executive vice president, and conclude that love makes men – even 60-year-old millionaire men – do strange things.

But there’s another way to look at a decision that most people would think makes as much sense as volunteering for a tax audit. That is to conclude that Jackson is doing something he’s never done before and is showing exceptional courage to do it. Phil Jackson isn’t taking on just a little challenge, he’s diving into one of the biggest challenges in the sport.

It’s become accepted wisdom that as good as Jackson is as a coach, he’s never taken on the challenge of coaching a team that isn’t built to win. Sure, he won six titles in Chicago and three in L.A., but in the first job he had Michael Jordan, not only the best player in history but also one of the most coachable, and in the second he had Shaquille O’Neal, one of the all-time great centers, and Kobe Bryant.

Re-Phil in L.A. Reunited! Lakers return Jackson as coach Celizic: Credit Phil for finally taking risk Ventre: Zen Master is nuts to return Wise: Return about yen, not Zen Vote: Why did he return to Lakers? Vote: Will coach lead Lakers to title?

We know there’s more to winning titles than just rolling the ball out onto the floor, even if Jordan or Shaq is out there to pick it up. Other coaches have had great talent and haven’t won. Jackson himself was unable to win in his final two seasons in L.A., his last game being a game-five series-ending loss to Detroit in last year’s finals. And he didn’t win in Chicago during the two years when Jordan was trying to be a baseball player.

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But it’s a lot easier to win when you have the best players and the best teams. And every time someone anointed Jackson a genius, someone else was quick to wonder what he could do if he didn’t have a great team and didn’t have the most coachable personnel.

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