Phil Jackson Managed Bulls Through Tumultuous Incidents

Transcript

00:00 I'm Melissa Roland with Sports Illustrated and we're here with Jill Painter-Lopez.

00:07 Now Jill, one really interesting takeaway from the last Dance Documentary series is

00:12 how Phil Jackson kept the Chicago Bulls together during two incidents that easily could have

00:16 torn apart the team.

00:17 Tell us a little bit about what went down.

00:21 Well Melissa, the way he dealt with players and certainly being able to deal with Michael

00:27 Jordan and all the different personalities that come with Pippen, Rodman, Kukoc, everyone

00:33 is just pretty amazing.

00:34 But the two incidents were of course the famous dual and physical altercation between Steve

00:41 Kerr and Michael Jordan in 1995 in training camp.

00:44 Those practices, both practices were legendary because of Michael Jordan and how he would

00:50 accept nothing less than 150%.

00:53 Steve Kerr in this particular incident wouldn't back down.

00:57 He pushed Jordan in the chest, Jordan punched him in the eye, Phil Jackson threw Jordan

01:02 out of practice and Jordan did all the apologizing of course and he said to Phil when Phil went

01:10 to talk to him afterwards, he's like, "I know, I know I screwed up."

01:12 Then he called Kerr, apologized and Steve Kerr said in the documentary, "I think that

01:17 made us better and improved our relationship," which is really interesting because that really

01:21 could have fractured the team.

01:22 And then of course the incident with Scottie Pippen that has tainted his career, certainly

01:28 quitting on the team in 1994 in the playoffs against the Knicks with the last second shot

01:34 drawn up, Phil drew it up for Tony Kukoc.

01:38 Everybody in the world would have thought Pippen was getting that last second shot and

01:42 he stayed on the bench, wouldn't go in the game and Phil said, "Are you in or are you

01:45 out?"

01:46 And of course we know Kukoc made that shot, but afterwards Phil called him out in front

01:51 of the team and said, "You let us down."

01:53 Bill Cartwright was very emotional, he got up and spoke and then Pippen was emotional

01:58 and crying as well, apologized to the team and they got through that.

02:02 That's all help with the leaders on the team and of course Phil Jackson.

02:06 It's unbelievable the things that he was able to navigate during those times and of course

02:12 that set up them winning another three-peat.

02:13 Pete.