Phil Jackson is a hall of fame coach and built his career on coaching some of the best players in NBA history such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant. Jackson was recently asked at Domopalooza 2018 in Salt Lake City what separates Jordan and Bryant’s greatness from each other.
Jackson said that Bryant played with fire but Jordan was more coachable. Examples he used were if he took Jordan out of a game due being too aggessive, he would be ok with it because he recognized his mistakes. Bryant on the other hand, was hard to coach but his fire and intensity for the game of basketball was always put on notice.
Jackson also elaborated on the beef between Bryant and O’Neal during their time with the Lakers. He said that Bryant’s issue with O’Neal was that he was seen as having no drive and didn’t care enough about the game. O’Neal admitted to this by saying that he relaxed more after he won his first championship with the Lakers in a one-on-one interview with Bryant last month during NBA All-Star weekend.