Having two of the best players on your team can sometimes be a problem. Managing egos and ensuring they click on the court is vital to success, and few have done it better than Phil Jackson, who coached Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen together during his time in the NBA. Chris Brickley, in a recent interview, revealed a valuable lesson the man taught him.
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Brickley, who was a player development assistant with the New York Knicks, shared how, after a disastrous season, everyone on the staff but him was fired. Jackson was the president of the storied franchise at the time, and he called everyone into his office one by one to hand them the pink slip.
Brickley, however, answered Jackson whatever Jackson asked him well, which is why he kept his job. It was then that Jackson, who had achieved so much success with the Chicago Bulls as head coach, shared the secret behind his success.
“We developed a friendship, me and Phil, and he taught me… ‘When I was with the Bulls, it wasn’t about basketball, it was about how I managed Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman….,” said Brickley.
“That’s when I realized. This whole basketball thing is like, it’s about managing players’ energy, managing different players’ attitudes, and figuring that out. That’s how you get the best out of players.”
Of course, Brickley was not in the same shoes as Jackson in the 1990s, when he managed the most dominant team in NBA history, led by arguably the greatest player to ever hold a basketball. Jackson won six championships with Jordan and Pippen as his cornerstones, and he was so effective and unique that the thought of the Bulls’ stars playing under anyone else seemed unfathomable for a time.
But more than the tactics, it was about management, as Jackson told Brickley. And Brickley used that mantra while developing his own training programs thereafter.
“I took that into my training. Like obviously, you want the right drills, but there are no magic drills,” he said, hinting that he too, decided to impact players with more than just a clipboard in his hand.
“Phil played a role in just, how I deal with players,” Brickley concluded.
