Pippen: You hate to see Phil go out that way

ATLANTA — If this is how Phil Jackson departs as an NBA coach, it was about as rough an exit imaginable.

His Los Angeles Lakers were swept by Dallas, losing Game 4 on Sunday 122-86, as the Mavericks knocked down 20 of 32 shots from 3-point range.

One of Jackson’s greatest players, Scottie Pippen, is in Atlanta following the Bulls.

“You hate to see Phil go out that way, but you know what — he’s sent a lot of people out that way, too,” Pippen said.

Jackson, 65, is expected to retire. He won six championships with the Bulls and five with the Lakers. He was trying to win his third straight title and make his fourth consecutive Finals appearance this year. Instead, the Lakers are out in the second round.

“I can’t say that I expected it to go down that way, but you had to know that Dallas had the momentum,” Pippen said. “The Mavs played almost perfect basketball, shooting those 3s. It took the fight out of the Lakers early.”

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau knows Jackson only in passing, but competed against him in two of the last three NBA Finals as a Boston Celtics assistant.

“His record speaks for itself,” Thibodeau said. “To win all those titles and do it at the level he did for that long, he’s had an unbelievable career. He’s certainly one of the all-time greatest coaches in the history of the game.”

Just a few months ago, Pippen celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Bulls 1991 championship — the Bulls’ first as a team and Jackson’s first as a coach.

“I’m sure that today is still a happy day for him,” Pippen added. “He’s had a wonderful career. I’m just glad to see that now he can move on and start to explore something else in his life if he chooses to.

“You can’t feel sorry for him. Phil has been coaching 20 years and been to the Finals 13 times. It couldn’t get no better than that.”