Repeating as NBA champion is obviously no simple task as it is leaps and bounds more difficult than winning a title to begin with. While this general perception may hold true more often than not, Phil’s career history suggests otherwise. In their potential repeat years the Chicago Bulls went 67-15 (1992) and 69-13 (1997). The Lakers went a relatively pedestrian 56-26 (for a defending champion) in 2001, but went into the playoffs scorching hot riding an eight game winning streak, which translated to a near perfect 15-1 cleaning of the house in the playoffs.
This season has potentially diminished, rather than encouraged Phil’s impetus to keep coaching beyond this year. As I harped on earlier, PJ feels a growing sense of failure in getting the team to adhere to his coaching and laments that once you reach that point as a head coach, there really is no point in continuing on. The man does already have an astounding ten titles to his name after all.
Here at Lakers Nation, we’ve been calling it the “Road to the Repeat” all season and navigating down the road towards a 16th NBA championship will require as much patience and effort from PJ as it will from the team itself. This may quite possibly turn out to be coach Jackson’s toughest repeat year to date. We can only hope that the squad snaps out of this uncomfortable malaise and trusts in the words of the best coach to have ever led grown men in the Association.
The time for making excuses is all but over folks. Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals is right around the corner and we’ve all grown weary and fed up with the Lakers’ continuous assurance that everything will be different come playoff time. No more talk, show us that championship walk.
The real season begins now. Let’s silence all the haters and prove to the world that the NBA belongs to L.A.
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