Phil Jackson has been doing the media rounds to promote his new memoir, and in the process has given some strong opinions.
Last week Jackson compared Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant, and sided with Jordan on a lot of his opinions. Today he’s picking another player over Jordan to start a team if he had his pick.
“In my estimation, the guy that has to be there would be Bill Russell. He has won 11 championships as a player,” Jackson said in an interview with Time. “That’s really the idea of what excellence is, when you win championships.”
I think Bill Russell get shortchanged a lot because he wasn’t a guard, didn’t play in the era of color tv, and most importantly, wasn’t a high-flying, culture changer like Jordan was.