Phil Jackson Quotes
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I think he has a level of confidence that gives him the understanding of what he can and can't do in this game. I think he's playing within the groundwork of what he's capable of doing, which is really important.
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He had a so-so game. He played adequately.... Everybody's a work in progress right now.
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We couldn't overcome a tough shooting game for Kobe. They threw an extra man at him, and we didn't make good adjustments. Offensively, I don't think we grasped the concepts of what we are trying to do here.
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I think he looks comfortable playing. That's the one thing I felt last year - that he didn't look comfortable playing.
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I think people forgot that there are still ways you can get the ball inside rather than just standing there and throwing the ball in. You have to have a system that makes all things work.
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I think he gave the ball up in various points of the year, and I think there's been a fine balance between guys stepping up and making shots and Kobe trusting his teammates. It hasn't got to the point where it's not happening, where I'm disappointed, but there's opportunities that still could be there that have to be exploited even more and we have to recognize that as a team.
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He's moved on. It's time for the fans to move on.
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It's a confidence builder for this team. It shows we can overcome odds.
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There's still a fan core out there that's not going to let him off the hook. They're not going to give him the grace and the ability to get himself off the hook and into the fans' favor.
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I played hockey in North Dakota growing up and watch a lot of that.
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He'll be playing out on the perimeter a lot, ... How much, I don't know. He might start there the first and third quarters and play a power position in the second and fourth quarters.
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When you start out a ball game and the first thing they do is call an offensive foul on him for a nonexistent foul, you know the kid doesn't have a chance out there playing. The referees just give him nothing. It's embarrassing.
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Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.
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We want him out there. We want their full team out there to play, so you earn what you win.
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I've seen quite a few guys do that in his situation, focused. He wanted to stay in, in the second quarter. He asked to stay in so he could get loose, get a second wind.
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They almost made me get up and walk out of the building in the third quarter. I almost left them alone on a sinking ship. But they got it right in time and it took another 10 minutes but they finally got it right and got going. That's what a layoff will do sometimes.
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I felt they were self-directed out there. They knew what they wanted to run. They broke down the double-teams and I didn't have to burn timeouts to explain it to them. That was satisfying to me.
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Our particular team right now is not a team that does well resting on any kind of sense of accomplishment. We still have to drive ourselves and drive the team forward.
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I'm not trying to find answers anymore. I'm trying to live what I know.
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I think it's a matter of trust, a matter of rebuilding the trust that we had, ... And yes, I have talked to Kobe; he actually called me this morning to congratulate me on the job. And I felt confident that he's confident that we can go forward.
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I've been nudging him gently in the right direction, hopefully, and I think he's ready to turn the corner.
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He's had to make some adjustments. I really feel like the adjustments have been made.
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Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team.
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Our game plan was to exploit the middle and do the things we wanted to, but he (Bryant) was still supposed to be a force over on that side of the offense. I just felt he never really got in rhythm until the end, and we said. Just go after it.