A Ringing Endorsement

You could say the 1993-94 season was a learning experience for both Phil Jackson and me.

I was embarking on my first season as an NBA beat writer, Jackson was taking on the challenge of coaching the Chicago Bulls without Michael Jordan for the first time.

I discovered such nuances as which cities require rental cars, which arenas have the best food, how to get the lowest rate at the Marriott.

And I discovered that Phil Jackson is a great coach, with or without Jordan.

Taking a team with half a roster of new players (in a season in which six of the top-10 players missed a total of 192 games because of injury), finishing with a 55-27 record would be commendable enough.

Doing so immediately after the retirement of the game’s greatest player remains one of the best coaching jobs I’ve ever seen.

He also ranks among the most interesting personalities I’ve covered. He isn’t quite as deep or intellectual as he’s made out to be, but I believe he set an NBA record by not only using “jocularity” and “elan” in the same season, but using them in the same sentence.

He’s the only coach I’ve seen work on the New York Times crossword puzzle in the locker room before a game.

There were fringe benefits to covering a Jackson-coached team. He chose nice hotels for his team (and thus the media), and thanks to Jackson I had a legitimate reason to enact a scene from the movies by hopping in a taxicab and yelling “Follow that bus!”

Sooner or later it all comes into play with Jackson, and everything--the Zen teachings, the Native American stories--winds up relating to the point: winning basketball games.

So the Bulls didn’t falter after a five-game losing streak in the second half of the season or let mini-crises such as a Scottie Pippen run-in with the law or Pippen’s criticism of the fans overtake the main agenda. As usual with Jackson’s teams, the Bulls were at their best just in time for the playoffs, putting together a 10-game winning streak in late March and early April.

“I don’t think it was a mystery as to how we did it,” said Jim Cleamons, who was in the third of his seven years as a Bull assistant coach that ‘93-94 season. “The ballplayers did it. But they have to be committed to the same task. That’s the situation you run into in the pro game, is getting guys committed to what you want to do.

“I think that’s what he does with his ability to communicate with players. The mythology. . . . I can’t give away his trade secrets. That’s something that will be intriguing for the [Laker players]. He doesn’t do it with mirrors, he does it with confidence. Ultimately, it boils down to one word: trust.”

Without Jackson, there’s no way the Bulls would have even been within a bad call by referee Hue Hollins of advancing to the conference finals. Pippen caught New York Knick guard Hubert Davis’ arm long after Davis had released a jump shot with 2.1 seconds remaining in Game 5. Davis made two free throws for an 87-86 victory. Instead of taking a 3-2 series lead back to Chicago for Game 6, the Bulls trailed, 3-2, in a series they eventually lost in seven games.

“The only thing I can say is that except for that call, we might have been in the finals and had another crack at it,” Bull assistant coach Tex Winter said.

When Jordan retired the day before training camp, you couldn’t even conceive of them making the finals. It was a stretch just to refer to them as the three-time defending champions.

The Bulls turned to Pete Myers, the very definition of journeyman, to take Jordan’s place. They had new players in Steve Kerr, Bill Wennington and rookie Corie Blount. It was the first year in America for Toni Kukoc, Krause’s pet project from Europe. They traded Stacey King for Luc Longley midway through the season. It was a very high turnover for a team that had kept a core of nine players intact for three consecutive championship seasons.

In addition, Horace Grant was in the last year of his contract and had his eyes elsewhere. He always felt a little resentment toward Jackson because Phil was harder on him than he was on Pippen and Jordan. For the last two months of the season he tuned out Jackson the way students tune out a substitute teacher.

One thing that kept the team competitive was Winter’s triangle offense. Jordan was prone to improvise (and get good results). This group didn’t have that bailout player. Pippen had a breakthrough season, averaging career highs of 22 points and 8.7 rebounds, plus winning the All-Star game most-valuable-player award. But the team won by sticking to its principles.

“We probably ran our offense as well as we ever did,” Winter told The Times’ Robyn Norwood.

After getting through the regular season only two games shy of the previous year’s record and staying in the hunt for the top record in the Eastern Conference through the final weekend, Jackson’s job was just beginning.

The Bulls blew a fourth-quarter lead and a chance to steal Game 1 in New York. On the day off, word filtered through that Jackson might have something funky planned. The team’s public relations director told me to be ready for anything.

So I gave my orders to the cabbie and we followed the team bus as it wound its way through the streets of Manhattan, past the Downtown Athletic Club (where the team was supposed to practice) and on to the Staten Island Ferry terminal.

“The Statue of Liberty is on the way,” Jackson explained before his team boarded the ferry. “And I think everybody needs a dose of liberty once in a while.”

Although the boat ride didn’t help the Bulls enough for them to win Game 2, it might have set the tone for the rest of the series.

“The guys got together, they talked to each other,” Cleamons said. “They talked to him. It was one of those moments that you begin to realize it’s a long, arduous task that lies before you. It’s a tough journey. Then you look around, you’re in a city of 7 million people and it’s just the coaching staff, the trainers and 12 ballplayers. You’re talking about, basically, 20 people. You release some of that pressure.”

Things really got tough with 1.8 seconds remaining in Game 3. The Knicks had stormed back to take away a certain Bull victory and tie the score. During a timeout, Jackson diagrammed a play that called for Pippen to inbound the ball to Kukoc.

For Pippen, a season’s worth of pressure to replace Jordan and distrust of management for its favoritism of Kukoc came to a head. The pivotal point of the season and he wasn’t even going to be an option to take the shot? No way.

He sat down and refused to enter the game. Jackson was stunned, but he quickly regrouped and asked Myers to make the pass to Kukoc, which he did and Kukoc made the winning basket.

Jackson let the players straighten out Pippen in a team meeting after the game. Jackson didn’t press the issue, didn’t try to make a scapegoat of Pippen in the middle of the playoffs.

“He was able to step back,” Winter said. “He didn’t let his ego get in the way.”

That’s a trait that will serve him well in a Laker locker room crowded with agendas. And don’t be too surprised if one day you see a group of very tall men boarding a boat headed for Catalina.

J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com