Why Phil Jackson was the Best NBA Coach EVER and it’s not even close! “Handling Egos”

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Once again, the entire sports world was fixated on “The Last Dance” on Sunday night. Episodes 3 and 4 aired on ESPN and it was FANTASTIC. This week focused on the antics of Dennis Rodman and how the Bulls effectively dealt with him to still win yet another championship.

I tweeted early last week that Phil Jackson was the best NBA coach ever. My reason for that was because he was the best in the business at handling player’s egos. One example was how he handled Rodman’s request to go to Las Vegas for two days in the middle of the season which was shown in episode 3. He didn’t tell him no and even negotiated with him on the time frame against Jordan’s wishes.

I’ve been covering the NBA for 10 years and I’ve watched every coach in the league closely. The reality is, they all can coach and they all know the X’s and O’s. The difference between a good coach and a great coach is his ability to handle the ego’s on the roster and managing their personalities.

The No.1 principle of leadership is that it’s a behavior not a position. Leaders empower people and how best to do that than by showing empathy for those that you are leading?

Rodman was a different bird and Phil understood that. However, he also had the ultra-competitive Michael Jordan to keep happy too. However, he was able to negotiate the situation to keep everybody focused on the goal at hand, winning. He gave Rodman his time away and when he came back he proved to the team that he was all in by still being in shape even though Jordan had to go get him. HILARIOUS!!!!

Once Jordan saw that the dun hadn’t lost a step after a vacation to Vegas the rest of the team was sold. Brilliant thinking on Jackson’s part.

Boyz can say that he won 11 championships during his coaching career because he had the best players if they want but he had to manage all of those egos at the same time. That’s almost impossible to do with the caliber of players he had to coach. Very few people can navigate that minefield and Phil Jackson did so eloquently. THE BEST EVER!! Stop me when I start lyin’!