Michael Ventre

Presumably, Phil Jackson made his decision to return to the Lakers on his own. He sought no outside counsel. He contemplated, then acted.

Because if he indeed had solicited advice, if he scaled a mountain in Tibet to ask a holy man for enlightenment, if he had inquired if this new life adventure would enrich his soul and bestow upon his being everlasting peace and harmony, the likely response he would have received is this:

“Are you out of your freaking mind?!”

In any quest for serenity, there are always obstacles that need to be overcome. For the Zen Master, these will soon arrive in two forms: 1) Kobe Bryant, and 2) the rest of the Lakers’ roster. I would love to prophesize that Phil will meditate on these elements until they fall away like petals from a flower, but the oracle in me sees him pulling his hair out on a nightly basis and eventually being administered to by Rudy Tomjanovich’s physician.

Quite often in life, vanity trumps sanity. Even the Zen Master is not immune to this. He agreed to become the head coach of the Lakers for the second time because it’s difficult to make $10 million a year in Montana being at one with nature. The lure of adulation by one of the most storied franchises in sports and its fans triumphed over the calm assessment that, at its very essence, this is a lousy job.

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Bryant is one major reason why. There is an old proverb which, when roughly translated from ancient Sanskrit, goes something like this: “Kobe will always be Kobe.” Countless individuals have reflected upon this to decipher its true meaning, when all they really had to do was look at the Western Conference standings for the 2004-05 season.

Phil was forced out the first time because of Kobe. Other philosophers surely will offer alternative wisdom, but other philosophers are full of it. Phil could not coexist on the same astral plane as Kobe, or in the same room for that matter. In his tell-all memoir, Phil indicated he told GM Mitch Kupchak that it was either him or Kobe, which suggests that Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant are as likely to walk hand-in-hand together as Michael Jackson and the Santa Barbara D.A.

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Unfortunately, Kobe has not changed. If anything, he is even more deeply devoted to his belief that the universe revolves around him. The departure of Shaquille O’Neal only served to fatten his ego and provide him a constant green light. Now when Kobe is in possession of the magic orb, he’s not giving it up to anyone, and he certainly won’t be persuaded to do so by a man who so openly dissed him, thereby adding to the negative energy that has turned him from prince to pariah.