Lakers head coach Phil Jackson won’t make a decision until July on whether he’ll return to the bench for the 2009-2010 NBA season. He’s complained about the travel, but he’s an old guy. Old guys complain about things. But one of the ideas being kicked around to keep Phil would involve assistant coach Kurt Rambis assuming control of the team for certain road trips, including running practice. From the LA Times, via USA Today:

“This is not new to me,” Rambis, who was one of the final candidates for the Sacramento Kings head coaching job, said late Tuesday night. “This is one of the many ideas we kicked around a little.

“The hardest part about the job is the travel. It’s especially hard when you have physical issues. There’s some travel that are particularly grueling. He can take tough road trips off. Phil is probably at a point where he is looking to wind his career down and I’m looking to wind my career up.”

I’m surprised that a soft transition doesn’t happen more in the coaching ranks of professional sports. If a team is doing well, has a successful system in place, and the head man wants to bow out, why not ease the heir apparent into the job? It may be because the pro sports–especially basketball–are so talent-intensive. At least that’s what my talented, non-management friends tell. They’re not always reliable, but they sure are fun.

After last night, the city of Los Angeles can claim 15 NBA titles and 25 arrests to its credit after Game 5 in Orlando and from the ensuing calamity in Los Angeles last night. But even the rioting in the City of Angels never got as ugly as the hat that Lakers coach Phil Jackson decided to wear to the award stand last night–a yellow baseball cap with purple home embroidered “X” on the front, signifying the ten championship teams Jackson has coached. From the Boston Globe:

Jackson won six titles with Michael Jordan and the Bulls and now four with the Lakers. In celebration of his accomplishment, he wore a yellow hat with a purple Roman numeral X on it with each title year listed around it.

Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy believes Jackson is the greatest NBA coach of all time.

“Hey, some of the stuff is almost incomprehensible, OK?” Van Gundy said. “I think if I’m right, the guy has won 51 playoff series now. Check your record book and see how many coaches have ever won 50 playoff games. It’s fewer than 20, and the guy has won 51 playoff series. It’s incomprehensible.”

Look, if he’s the greatest of all time, why feel the need to remind everyone about it? Most of us can count to ten. That hat–that stupid, ugly hat–is tacky on so many levels. It’s a pathetic show of arrogance from a guy that always seemed to handle his business in the right way. Now if he had smashed up ten storefronts on Rodeo Drive…that’s something one could commemorate with a homemade baseball cap. Ten Asian strippers in a weekend…you get the idea.

Tonight at 9:00 Eastern on ESPN, Shaquille O'Neal makes his debut for the Suns (37-16), who in case you just woke up from a coma (or don't care) got traded from Miami a few weeks back.  And the Suns' opponent tonight is none other than Shaq's team-turned-enemy Lakers, presently one game back of the Suns in the Pacific Division. 

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who coached Shaq to titles from 2000-02, is among the skeptics [of the benefits to the Suns], saying Shaq's responsibilities will involve "taking the ball out of bounds and waiting for the other team to get back."

Awesome.  And oh yeah, the Lakers have been energized since trading a bag of recyclables and some chattel for Pau Gasol when the Eastern Conference got rid of all its good players.  AND the Suns' next two games after this are against respective division leaders Boston and Detroit.  Wait, I… I think I'm actually interested in the NBA.

By the way, no one has yet to mention the single greatest thing about the Shaq trade: for the first time since his LA days, he'll be in a purple uniform, thus reminding me of Grimace every time I see him.

Apparently not realizing that his brilliant decision to hire (then fire) Larry Brown is the reason he's now the Knicks' coach, Isiah Thomas has turned to calling Phil Jackson pussy-whipped for staying in Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Lakers president Jeannie Buss, when he could have had the Knicks job.

Before last night's 99-94 Knick victory over Jackson's Lakers, Thomas yesterday called Jackson and Pat Riley "the two best in our business" – a clear dig at Brown. Thomas had a full-day interview with Jackson at Los Angeles International Airport 20 months ago. Thomas believes if it weren't for Lakers president Jeanie Buss, Jackson would have come to New York…

"I thought his interest was genuine," Thomas said. "I thought he always had a soft spot for the Knicks and this city. I thought he was close to coming. I think the situation in Los Angeles, the relationships he had, the home he made, it weighed heavily in his decision. Had he been younger, and a little bit freer and had not had as many ties in L.A., it could have been a different story."

Okay, so maybe Isiah didn't use the exact phrase "pussy-whipped." In fact, he was probably just giving a straightforward answer, and it's not really that big of a deal. But that's not satisfying for me. In my little world, Isiah Thomas is an idiotic dickhead, and it makes me happier to think of him blaming Jeannie Buss for his sucking as the coach of the Knicks.