“Joe Dumars was beating out Michael Jordan off the dribble, I had to show them ‘The Wizard of Oz’”: When Phil Jackson formulated a weird way to get into the head of his own Bulls squad

Phil Jackson orchestrated a triangle offense for the Bulls which earned him, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant a lot of success, but he did several other things that we don’t know of.

Phil Jackson is arguably the greatest basketball coach of all time. He has had more years when he won a championship than he didn’t throughout his 20-year head coaching career in the NBA. 

There are arguments that the 11x champion coach wouldn’t win a single ring if he didn’t have either Michael Jordan in Chicago or Kobe Bryant in LA to take him to the ultimate glory.

Also read: “Kobe Bryant, rank yourself, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James, or eat cow tongue!”: When Lakers’ legend almost chose biting a tongue over causing debates

Some believe just the other way around, that those two phenoms wouldn’t win any championships without the former Knicks big man. 

Whatever might be the case, Jackson must be given credit to manage such massive egos and take them to the ultimate glory more than 50% of the time he got to manage them.

Phil Jackson came up with an innovative but an offensive tactic to teach Michael Jordan and Co a lesson

Coaches from the past two decades have had many superstar teams, but they couldn’t win more than one championship, except for Erik Spoelstra who won two with the Miami Heat. 

Meanwhile, Jackson was not only able to manage two of the greatest egos of the game for 20 years, but he also led them to 11 championships. And that needed tactics like the one he used to set his team’s mindset against the mighty Detroit Pistons.  

“During the 1990 playoffs, I’d shown the team a video with scenes from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ The purpose was to illustrate how intimidated the players were by the Pistons’ rough play. There was a shot of B.J. Armstrong driving to the basket and getting clobbered by the Detroit front line, followed by a clip of Dorothy singing ‘This isn’t Kansas anymore, Toto.’” Jackson revealed this in his book Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.

That time Phil Jackson made the Chicago Bulls watch “The Wizard of Oz” in practice to send a message
https://t.co/2FYqb6dYBo

— Chris Torrey (@xtorrey) May 14, 2022

He continued, “Another sequence showed by Joe Dumars beating out Jordan off the dribble, while the Tin Man lamented not having a heart. Yet another had Isiah Thomas waltzing by Paxson, Horace, and Cartwright as the Cowardly Lion whined about not having any courage. The players broke into laughter at first, but that died down when they realized the message I was trying to convey.”

Also read: “Tiger Woods has no companions, he’s going to have to trust somebody”: Michael Jordan advised the Golf legend, who was dealing with personal struggles

Although that year they would lose to the “Bad Boys”, they would win the next year’s championship that would start their 8-year run of two three-peats.

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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