Same old, same old for Zen master
One day in our lifetimes Phil Jackson will come to town and not be asked the same questions.
Coach, do you have fond memories of your time here? Did the Bulls dynasty end too soon? How do your current Lakers compare to your former Bulls?
The only time the flashbacks will end, however, is when the Bulls return to respectability and then contention and then win another NBA championship.
How close are they?
Not very judging by Saturday night and how cavalierly the Lakers beat the Bulls 117-109 in the United Center.
The Lakers snored through the first half, looking like they were playing the last game of a long road trip instead of the first.
Reports out of Los Angeles have been that Jackson's team is bored with basketball and disinterested in the remainder of the regular season.
That's how the Lakers looked as they were badly outplayed in the first half. Then the Lakers awoke, rubbed the snooze from their eyes and decided to win a basketball game.
So all Bulls fans were left to do was think about the old days when Jackson coached the Bulls to six NBA titles before they split up without the help of even Yoko Ono.
"For Bulls fans it was tough for it to end," Jackson said, "and for them to think what could have been."
Do you wonder?
"No," Jackson said with that little half-smile/half-smirk.
He knows it couldn't have continued. He was ready to go. Michael Jordan didn't know what he wanted to do with himself. Scottie Pippen needed to escape elsewhere to get a big, long, dumb contract. Dennis Rodman was too many tokes over the line by then.
"Most of it was poised to end at that time," Jackson said. "It was easy to close down at that time and move on."
But he still doesn't mind bringing up what-might-have-been to tweak the locals. Judging by the crowd's polite applause when Jackson entered the court and when he was introduced, they're still his fans.
"There never were any bad times (here)," Jackson said.
Of course, it's no wonder he doesn't mind reminiscing. Why would he? He moved on, as he puts it, to a much better place than the Bulls did.
Jackson has another exciting team and the closest thing to another Jordan in Kobe Bryant.
So, does the circus that used to feature the Bulls in the main ring now have the Lakers in their place?
"It compares a little bit," Jackson said, pointing out that people meet the Lakers' bus at midnight and later when it rolls up to the team hotel.
But then he noted of the old Bulls, "But when you have Dennis, Scottie and Michael, you have different types of people meet you."
In other words sometimes it was a freak show more than a circus.
Jackson is competing for another championship with the Lakers now and the Bulls still are trying to figure it all out 11 years after their last title.
Meanwhile, fans in Los Angeles can enjoy the pursuit while fans in Chicago can only enjoy the memories flashed on the big screen above midcourt.
Phil Jackson was asked all those questions Saturday night because he was the only one at the United Center with any answers.
mimrem@dailyherald.com