Okay, so I’m back from a rest and I got one thing on my mind: Phil Jackson and the world champion LA Lakers.

The team won the title Sunday and right away everyone was talking the next day about Phil’s legacy and what it meant. I heard some people say he wasn’t a great coach because he couldn’t win without superstar players.

That really, really, really gets me hot! First of all, it takes a great coach to win no matter what the talent. If that weren’t the case, Doug Collins, Del Harris, and Kurt Rambis would be champions.

They’re not.

Phil is and he took their teams-the ones they couldn’t win with, to titles within at least two years of taking over the helm.

Jerry Sloan had two of the best players of their position for their generation. I speak of John Stockton and Karl Malone. He had 2 great years to steal one while Jordan was away. Yet injuries, personal, and other issues stopped a great coach and great players from a title.

Yet nothing stopped Jackson. He was a winner with four different teams. 91-93 Bulls, 96-98 Bulls. The 00-02 Laker. And now these 09 Laker. Incredible. 10 titles in 12 trips to the finals.

Secondly, I’ve also heard the other argument that he never built a team from the bottom up.

Like heck he didn’t.

Take a look at this current Laker squad. If you remember he stepped down after 04. Rudy Tomjonovich took over and ending up quiting by the end of the season because the team was so bad. (In fairness, he quit because of health concerns and while the team was bad, it was all his fault. They traded Shaq and Kobe got injured.)

Jackson came back and did the impossible with essentially Rudy T’s team. I was there the night it got started. A regular season loss to Phoenix at the Stapes center. Folks thought this run was dumb on Jackson’s part. They didn’t know why he had came back. They said he didn’t have anything to prove.

But Jackson knew better. He knew that one dumb little argument existed and even though he may deny it, he wanted to prove them wrong.

And that he did. He led the Laker to the NBA finals within 3 years of not even making the NBA playoffs. Back to back loses to the Suns followed by a loss to the Celtics in the finals, then a title in 09.

There I said it. I dare you to argue with me.