George Karl is one of the highest paid coaches in the league, yet he refuses to take one for the team and call out the referees for a supposed poorly officiated game. Karl commented that he’s not as “good or philosophical” as Jackson is in persuading the League to change the officiating in the Lakers favor.
The Denver Post went as far as publishing an article in today’s paper that says the Lakers and Phil Jackson paid $50,000 for Game 5, which is the sum of the fines for both the Lakers ($25k) and Jackson ($25K).
““The Lakers paid $50,000 to win that game. They got their money’s worth,” said a Denver player, not wanting to be identified for fear of retribution from the league.” (Another Millionaire Player not willing to take one for the team)
Even the NBA agreed with his assessment when they rescinded a flagrant foul on Andrew Bynum and assessed one on Dahntay Jones. Yet, they still fined Phil for the criticism and if I were Phil, I’d be irked myself.
Bottom line, Phil Jackson took one for his team and called out the officials for a horribly reffed game.
“I didn’t think very good of it at all,” he said before the Lakers and Denver Nuggets met Wednesday night in Game 5. “I thought I was very conciliatory, tried to soft-pedal my comments, but that’s the league for you. They’ll come back and hammer you.”
“If it was a $10 fine it would still bother me,” Jackson said. “Parking tickets still bother me.”
George Karl could learn a lesson or two from the 9-Time Champion Jackson about what it takes to win.
via ESPN
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