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25 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 From the author (don't use the stars, I filled out to send Dec 02, 2000
By Roland Lazenby
Phil Jackson is one of the most complex figures in the history of American professional sports. Widely adored and held in the highest of esteem by fans in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and the world over, Jackson has built a career on finding success through a variety of unconventional approaches. Interpreting his actions and discerning his motives could easily prove a daunting task for any biographer. If anything redeems this effort, it is the insight offered by Tex Winter himself, who has granted me numerous candid interviews over the past half dozen seasons. Long known for his frankness about the high-priced stars he coaches, Winter has taken the same approach with his own boss. He admires Jackson yet never hesitates to criticize him. Jackson, for his part, seems to accept this criticism as part of his relationship with his mentor. In fact, the coach clearly relies on Winter's frankness, never mind that it frequently annoys him. "Phil would like to control me," Winter offered during an interview in February 2000. "But he knows he can't." Jackson has complained privately that I somehow duped Winter into providing inside detail for my 1998 book about the Bulls, "Blood On The Horns." Yet it was Jackson himself who volunteered most of the truly sensitive information during our interviews. It was Jackson who told me of the bathroom battles between Michael Jordan and Bulls VP Jerry Krause. And it was Jackson who revealed Scottie Pippen's drunken verbal assault on Krause on a team bus in Seattle that year. I've interviewed Jackson several times over the years and have always found him to be forthcoming about events, even when the information he provides casts himself in a negative light. By no means is this an authorized biography. As much as Jackson would prefer that I not write it, he has taken no steps to restrict my access to his team or to people who might provide information about him. As a result, Winter has offered some refreshing insight into a complicated figure. I have also drawn heavily on Jackson's own published works, especially his first autobiography, "Maverick, More Than A Game," a rawer, more daring account of his early life than his 1995 title "Sacred Hoops" provided. Beyond Winter and Jackson's own works, my effort was aided immensely by a host of interviews and published material. When all was said and done, Tex Winter read the manuscript and declared that it was excellent. Tough but excellent. For Winter's help and guidance, I'm immensely thankful.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 A great account of Jackson's life Feb 13, 2001
By Constantine Ananiadis
Having always been intrigued by Phil Jackson as a coach and a person, I was thrilled to see that an account of his interesting career and life had been published. Being a coach myself, I had always wanted to find how this living legend's mind works and maybe try to apply some of his ideas/concepts to my coaching. That was the reason that I had devoured "Sacred Hoops" as soon as it came out back in 95-96.I was also excited to see "the value" that the book offers: 400 pages..."Not bad" I thought, and I went ahead and ordered the book right away! The content of the book did not disappoint me one bit. It is nicely structured (chronologically) and it gives quite an insight and quite a few details of Jackson's life. Usually a slow reader, I breezed through this nicely written piece of work by Lazenby. I especially enjoyed the quotes from interviews and informal discussions that either Jackson himself or people he was associated with had given in the past. I also really liked the fact that the book includes Jackson's first season in LA. I think this adds tremendous value to the book: it makes its publishing a lot more timely and therefore more appealing. My only couple of concerns with this publication are the following: a) The book seems to repeat itself at times mentioning the same thing over and over maybe from a different perspective but the same information/idea none-the-less. I apologize for not having a good example of this handy, but I wasn't taking notes while I was reading... b) The book is a little too "superficial" for my taste. Jackson is such a complicated and unique person and I think this book makes little or no attempt to try and "decipher" him. I am not sure, however, that that was even the intent of the author to begin with. Maybe all Lazenby wanted to do was give an account of Jackson's life and not really try to judge/critique his coaching techniques or philosophies. Regardless, I felt that since the author seems to "know" Jackson so well, he should have tried to offer an opinion on some of the controversial decisions in his personal or professional life. Overall, I'd say that anyone interested in Jackson should get this book. Lazenby gives you an objective account of Jackson's life (the good AND the bad; unlike many autobiographies...) and one will have a great time reading through the stories and looking at the pictures. Should a basketball (or other) coach get the book though in order to maybe "gain some coaching knowledge"? I wouldn't think so...
15 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 Interesting, But Nothing That Will Blow Your Mind Mar 21, 2001
By MoneyB
"brotherpres"
As someone who has read "Sacred Hoops" three times and follows Phil Jackson's coaching career very closely, I was very excited to see this on the shelf at my local bookstore. This was a good book. I breezed through it. I thought it was very well written, and it did have some interesting anecdotes. In my opionion, probably the most interesting part of the book wasn't even about Coach Jackson, but rather about the people who have worked with him. The short biopics of the Chicago Jerrys, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, and others were very interesting to me - and very fair (which is tough these days when you read anything about Krause). On the other end of the stick, I would agree that the book did seem a tad superficial as far as Jackson is concerned. It promises to give you insight into one of the most complex figures in contemporary sports, but really does not do that. It only touches superifically on his connection to Buddhism, meditation, and his relationships outside of basketball. Indeed, the end of Jackson's second marriage - certainly one of the more important influences in his life - is entirely covered in one short paragraph of a few sentences. All in all, this was a decent book. However, I won't be reading it again.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Title is misleading, but a good quick read nonetheless Jan 02, 2002
By Victoria Mulhern
I have always been intrigued by the work of the "Zenmaster," which is why I first decided to read this book. I had heard about Jackson's work in mending the rift between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and had wondered how he did it when others could not. The first 100 pages of this book delve into the mind of this phenomenal coach, but the rest of the book goes on to name his achievements. Yes, it was interesting to learn a little more about Michael Jordan, Pippen, Grant and Rodman but those guys were not the reason I picked up the book. If I wanted to learn about those players, I would have read "The Jordan Rules." Bottom line, I would rather pick up "Sacred Hoops" or "Maverick", which were actually written by Jackson himself.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 History of the Bulls..... Not Jackson Aug 03, 2001
This is an easy read... But you have to hash through a lot of common knowledge about the Bulls to get any interesting tidbits about Jackson. Sacred Hoops gives you much more perspective into Jackson than this book does. The author teases the reader with an opening story about how Jackson smokes two cigarettes and drinks a beer before he talked to the Bulls after a game... A great bit of informaion, but many true Bulls fans could have picked this up the the local papers or sports talk shows... The author gets most of his inside information from Tex Schram, Johnny Bach, and Skip Schaefer. The majority of the book is a general chronicle of the Bulls 8 year 6 title run offering few insights on Jackson. If you followed the Bulls, read Sacred Hoops, the only 'fresh' information comes from the last two chapters about Jackson's year off and some information about Jackson's first year with the Lakers. It reads quick, but do not expect learn any new in depth information about Jackson.
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