And now onto basketball...

The reporting of and understanding of sports always seems to be a balancing act between the importance of teams vs. the primacy of an individual player.

Certainly in basketball, the decision was made a long time ago, that individuals stars would drive the NBA. Certainly many have over the years. But as much as any one player, one coach has stood atop the sport. With eleven championships, Phil Jackson is the master.

But what got him there? Was it luck, timing, sheer basketball smarts, or a unique ability, almost like a film director in his prime, to manage huge egos and diverse personalities and consistently get the best out of them?

Long time sports journalist Peter Richmond, tries in Phil Jackson: Lord of the Rings,
to pin down who Phil Jackson is and what has made him so successful.

My conversation with Peter Richmond:

Badasses

Football today is big business. But back in the 1970's there were a group of guys that were a combination of castoffs, psychos and geniuses. Newcomers were from schools no one ever heard of and veterans had been cast off by every other "respectable" team. This group was the Oakland Raiders. John Madden was their neurotic and brilliant coach, Al Davis was their eccentric and imperious owner. They were like no other team at the time, and certainly like nothing we see today. Journalist Peter Richmond tells their story in Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders.

My conversation with Peter Richmond:

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