Lakers: Phil Jackson Warned Lakers To Draft Kristaps Porzingis Or They’d ‘Be Sorry’
By Eric Yee
Former Lakers’ coach, Phil Jackson has been in the news a lot lately, and seems to be talking more about his old team than his current one
Earlier in the season, it was almost a guarantee that Phil Jackson would somehow make his way back to the Los Angeles Lakers, but even with fiancee, Jeanie Buss clearing up these rumors just a week ago, it hasn’t stopped The Zen Master from dishing on his former team.
Most recently, Jackson was in the news with a hilarious anecdote about former Lakers’ center, Shaquille O’Neal but now he’s shifted his gaze to less nostalgic matters, specifically talking about last year’s NBA Draft.
According to the NY Post, Jackson claimed that the Lakers would regret passing on Kristaps Porzingis should they pass on him, which we know they eventually did.
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"We knew that [Porzingis] had a lot of talent. We saw that even in the workout with him shooting, and I had some fun with one of the Buss guys and I told him after [our] workout, ‘You guys are going to be sorry if you don’t pick up Porzingis with the second pick.’ They didn’t, we did."
It is highly ironic that this Jackson says this right before the 2016 NBA Draft, showing that he still has tricks up his sleeve despite being deemed too old school for the ever shifting landscape that is the NBA.
With rumors and smokescreens popping up constantly, let the mind games begin.
Jackson went on to say,
"Watching him in the summer league, we thought he was really competitive, that’s what we wanted to see in the tapes study we did… But when we saw that he had the stamina to play 28 to 32 minutes, well, we thought maybe he was going to be a 20-to-22-minute guy because of his strength and his lack of size or weight. But we knew how competitive, and what an athletic talent he was, really to be able to have that stamina.’"
Hindsight being 20-20, it’s easy to say this now seeing how, according to league voting, there are at least five better options the Lakers could have selected than rookie, D’Angelo Russell. But I’m sure even if given a do over, the Purple and Gold would stick with their pick… despite all of his flaws.
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Personally, while I understand Jackson’s humblebrag, it seems that his time would be better suited constructing a roster that could actually make the playoffs in the lowly Eastern Conference than worrying about affairs that don’t even concern him.