Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey

by Roland Lazenby

Mindgames follows the journey of Phil Jackson to the top of basketball’s coaching hierarchy, a rise that took him from obscurity in the Continental Basketball Association to nine championship rings in the NBA. Along the way he turned multimillionaire players on to meditation, transformed the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls from a one-man show to a five-man team of domination, and after battling with Bulls management, ended one dynasty to start another on the West Coast.

 

Sportswriter Roland Lazenby, author of the bestselling Blood on the Horns , reveals the fascinating story of Jackson's life, from his years with the New York Knicks under the legendary Red Holzman to his remarkable nine championships coaching first the Chicago Bulls and then the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

In Mindgames Lazenby compellingly portrays a man with a unique determination to control the competitive environment he inhabits. A clear picture of the Jackson mystique philosopher, teacher, manipulator, counselor, psychologist, shaman, champion, master of mind games.

Genres: Sports, Basketball, Biography, Nonfiction, Autobiography

450 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Roland Lazenby is an American sportswriter and educator.

Lazenby has written more than five dozen nonfiction books, mainly about basketball and American football. He has also contributed articles to magazines and newspapers.

Lazenby's book Bull Run! was named Sports Book of the Year for 1997 by the Independent Publishers Association.

Lazenby studied at Virginia Military Institute and Hollins University, and has been a member of Virginia Tech's Department of Communication and Radford University's School of Communication. A group of students from his media writing class compiled the book April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers (2007), an account of the Virginia Tech massacre. Lazenby served as editor.

In 2005, Lazenby and Andrew Mager created Planet Blacksburg, a student organization that focuses on new media, journalism, and publishing.

Reviews

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. Lazenby has some writing chops, as illustrated by Michael Jordan: The Life. I expected similar greatness from this book, hoping for some insight into the workings of Phil Jackson's mind. Instead I found a cursory sketch of the man, an already-been-told account that feels like a compilation of old Sports Illustrated articles and box scores.

Don't get me wrong, I mostly enjoyed reading this. I'm an 80s-90s kid who can't read enough about Jordan and the Bulls. And yet I feel let down. Kind of like going to a game where Jordan finishes with 16 points and 6 rebounds. Maybe you saw a dunk or two, but you know you didn't see the man at his best and can't help but feel cheated.

[Isaac · Rating 1 out of 5]

The winningest coach in all of NBA history's biography is one of my favorite books. It shows great detail about the pros and cons of being an NBA coach and lots of interesting information on Jackson's life. Some people say that he was only a great coach because his teams have had so much talent (Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'neal, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Pau Gasol etc) but i think it takes more then talent to build a great team.

[Tim Littleford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Phil Jacksons "Mind games"

The first third didn't talk about them and Jackson's own book "Sacred Hoops" was better.

The second third didn't talk about them, and the "Last Dance" netflix docco was better.

The last third did talk about them... At the Lakers.... a bit, and was probably the most interesting part of the book. But the ebook also deteriorated in the last third into strange grammar and spelling mistakes.

Basketball is good. Phil Jackson is interesting. But probably read something else.

[Joel Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was happily surprised that this book covered, in depth, my favourite Bulls teams from the 90s. I read Phil's book Sacred Hoops back in 1996 and have always been fascinated by him. This book gives you insight into his younger days before he played and coached in the NBA, and covered those years in between when he was trying to find direction and coached in the CBA.
After that nice chunk of Phil's origin story, we get into his days with the Bulls, coaching Jordan and Pippen and the greatest team in NBA history (72-10, don't mean a thing without the ring!). What I enjoyed was reading about some of the in-season drama I didn't know of at the time, or reading more about some of the stories I knew only in passing. This isn't just a book about coaching, x's and o's and the Triangle offence. There's the relationships between players, Phil's approach to Zen Buddhism, and some frustrating insight into the relationship with Jerry Krause.
This book brings you right up to the end of the Lakers second championship under Jackson, and some of the coaching difficulties he faced there. A great basketball book.

[Blaine Welgraven · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I'm not sure that we realize what we've done. It doesn't hit you right away first of all. It hits you later in life. With me, I've been so busy doing it, that I haven't had a chance to sit back and smell the roses. Jerry always tells me 'C'mon and sit back and smell the roses. They're blooming.'

I gotta figure out a way to win next year. I think as I get older I will." - Jerry Krause, Mindgames

I grew up - like so many millennials - watching the Bulls, riveted to their games. I remain - like so many millennials - nostalgic as any for those moments and memories.

Mindgames quickly tests the strength of that nostalgia - and never lets up. But it's Lazenby's narrative - which lacks cogency or focus - that ultimately fails to justify this 400-page slog of quotes and anecdotes. In the end, Mindgames is a sad, sordid and meandering book, written about deceptive, jealous, and narcissistic people, who all happened to be really good at basketball. There are no great lessons here. The narrative just ends.

[Michał Węgrzyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As all Lazenby's books this one is a long one. But there is a deeper thought behind it.
If one wants to provide a reliable and deep history to has to be a lengthy one.

Awesome book for basketball, leadership and coaching junkies.

[Kushani De Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Title and the content doesn’t align much in the sense the strategies Phil used are not given as one would expect. ‘11 Rings’ provide more detail if someone wants to learn about Phil. This book covers the history of Chicago Bulls mostly.

[Rodney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to follow at times… but provides great insight into P.J’s mind games.

[Dave Bolton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A behind the scenes look at Phil Jackson and his time coaching the Bulls, with a brief chapter on his first championship with the Lakers. It starts by focusing on his upbringing, his formative years in the NCAA and how his philosophies developed through his NBA career as a player. The bulk of the book is around his time in the CBA and NBA as a coach.

For me, the takeaways are how he engaged with his stars (Jordan, Pippen, O'Neal, Bryant) to get them to buy into the triangle offense and team systems that he preached.

I'm looking forward to reading Jackson's Eleven Rings book as soon as it is available on Kindle!

[James Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mindgames was a biography on Phil Jackson that is written up until 2002. It was a really good book to my book report project on since it had many different events and characters throughout Jackson's life. Phil Jackson won 8 championships (up to 2002) with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers as a head coach.

[Kaleb · Rating 1 out of 5]

This Sucks

[Bojan Avramovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sve sto niste znali o Phill Jackson u ovoj je knjizi. Plus recepti kako trenirati najbolje kosarkase u istoriji