Phil Jackson is coming back to L.A.

[cstephens]

My husband just called to tell me that he heard the "breaking news" announcement - Phil Jackson has re-signed to coach the L.A. Lakers. They didn't say anything more than that, but the news conference is supposed to be at 2pm. Should be interesting. This might make me interested in the Lakers again. I'm wondering how much money Phil's getting. My husband said he'd been reporting as asking for $5 million a year and a VP title in the organization, so I guess we'll see what the deal is that they made. I'd love to know the conversations that went on with Kobe. And given the statements that Phil's already made about Vlade, this should be fun. It might be time to pick up the next few issues of Sports Illustrated...

[Ghoulish Delight]

Boy is Jerry Bus looking like a bigger ass than usual right about now. Not to say that bringing Jacskon back is a bad idea, but this just confirms what we all knew to begin with, that firing him was the dumbest move he made.

I'm less convinced these days, however, that getting rid of Shaq was all that dumb. He's great and all, but look at Miami in the playoffs. Look familiar? The best defensive teams have figured Shaq out, and those are the teams you're going to meet in the late rounds of the playoffs. And any team Shaq is on runs the risk of relying on him, becoming one dimmensional. Neutralize Shaq (and by neutralize, I mean hold to under 30 points and 10 assists) and you've got a pretty good chance of winning. His brand of dominance works for a while, but it's not a long term strategy.