For the second consecutive season The Miami Heat have won The
Championship of The National Basketball Association on paper. In
reality, The Heat did not win the title last season and barring an
unforeseen miracle they won’t be hoisting The Larry O’Brien Trophy this
year either. I know that The Heat are still very much alive in The NBA
Playoffs, even though they lost their last game to The Indiana Pacers
which tied their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals Series at
one game apiece, but Miami is a flawed team that will make their head
coach Erik Spoelstra the fall man when they don’t win the title this
year. With a team consisting of All-Stars LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and
Chris Bosh, a big-time coach is needed. Heat president Pat Riley is
reluctant to come back to coaching the team which only leaves one name
out there, Phil Jackson.
No head coach has won more NBA Titles than Jackson as he has tasted
victory 11 times. Jackson has a history of leading teams with
high-profile players to championships. During the 90s, Jackson and Hall
of Fame guard Michael Jordan led The Chicago Bulls to six NBA
Championships. Jackson added to his legacy when he became the head coach
of The Los Angeles Lakers in 1999. Jackson was charged with the task of
getting All-Stars Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal to co-exist with one
another. The result was seen immediately as The Lakers won The NBA
Championship in each of Jackson’s first three seasons in Tinseltown.
During Jackson’s time with The Lakers, the team made seven appearances
in The NBA Finals winning five times.
If Jackson were to take his talents to South Beach, he would be
responsible for getting James his elusive NBA Championship, the same way
that he did it for Jordan and O’Neal. Being that Riley says that he is
done with coaching, I feel that he would stay out of Jackson’s way
allowing him to do what he does best which is winning. Both men were
rivals in the 90s when Riley was the head coach of The New York Knicks
and Heat respectively. Both men have respect for each other and they
each know what it takes to win in The NBA. Riley’s 1,210 wins as a head
coach are third on The NBA’s all-time wins list while Jackson is fifth
with 1,098.
I expect The Heat to get by The Pacers in this round and then being
able to dust off either The Philadelphia 76ers or The Boston Celtics in
The Eastern Conference Finals. The NBA Finals will once again be unkind
to James and The Heat if they contend with either The Oklahoma City
Thunder or The San Antonio Spurs. Both The Spurs and Thunder would
provide match-up nightmares for The Heat exposing their lack of outside
shooting. Thunder forward Kevin Durant is a match-up nightmare as we
have yet to see someone in The NBA guard to 7-foot scoring machine. The
Spurs are a battle tested veteran club that is unselfish and they will
do whatever it takes to win. For Miami, the lone interior scoring threat
in Bosh is injured with an abdominal injury leaving a team that lacks a
dominant interior presence extremely fragile. Last season saw The Heat
lose to The Dallas Mavericks in The NBA Finals. The Heat had the better
individual players, but The Mavericks had the better team. The Mavs knew
how to make James and Wade settle for jump shots which isn’t the
specialty of either player. This Heat team is built to dominate in the
regular season while also running roughshod over inferior teams in the
early rounds of the playoffs, but when it comes to the big boys of the
league, they are in trouble.
The Heat have not improved their perimeter shooting. In the
postseason, The Heat are making 31% of their shots behind the
three-point arc. The Heat finished the regular season fourth in field
goal percentage at .469, but that number is flawed because they do most
of their damage in transition. James and Wade are two of the elite
players in The NBA. By bringing in Jackson it would make James take his
game to the next level. James is a three-time NBA MVP and he may feel
that he is at the top of his game, but great coaches know how to make
good players great while making great players greater. For years
skeptics felt that Jordan would never win a championship and then
Jackson made him a team player. Before Jackson, O’Neal wore the label of
being a dominant big man that could not win the big one. During
Jackson’s second stint with The Lakers he was charged with making Bryant
a better team player which led to two more titles. Spoelstra is a good
coach, but he was given the keys to a Corvette when he is only capable
of driving a 1979 Cutlass Supreme.
Jackson might say publicly that he is done coaching, but money
talks. I know that Riley doesn’t have a former Playboy model to lure
Jackson with, but he would indeed give Jackson all the resources needed
to win. Jackson has never been a man to take over a team that needs to
rebuild, but he would look at a team that is on the cusp of a
championship and it would be very appealing to him to get James over the
hump.
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