Dr. Phil's Book Club

Try This One Coach

The Lakers completed their longest road trip since 1989 yesterday. They capped it off with a nationally televised loss to Cleveland, finishing 3-5 on their East Coast swing. One of the reasons the Lakers have looked less than cohesive lately is the absence of Luke Walton, who is out with an ankle injury until after the All-Star break. The Lakers miss Luke Walton immensely -- there’s something I never imagined writing. If it wasn’t for ‘Hibachi’ Arenas, Walton would be the league’s most improved player this year. But a heady forward with a bum ankle isn’t the only thing hurting the purple and gold lately, it’s also the books…or lack thereof. Now don’t ask me how this little item flew under the radar last week. Oh wait, that’s right--it was in the L.A. Times. It’s well known that the 'Zen Master' is infamous for hand picking titles for his players to read during lengthy road trips. Last season he gave Kobe “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”, and assigned “The Art of War” to Lamar Odom. For some reason I get this image of Odom on a team flight, reading a copy of High Times hidden inside of Sun Tzu’s treatise. Last Tuesday Jackson said that he did not hand out any books to his players for the three week road trip, and won’t be handing out any inspirational reading material until the team hits the road again in March, “I had all of the books in a bag, a Barnes and Noble bag, but I decided I didn’t want to bring them. I have like five books in there that I feel OK about them, but…there’s a book I was looking for that wasn’t available.” But there may be more to this than the fact that Phil couldn’t find a particular book. It may just be that Phil feels as if handing out profound, thought provoking literature to this era’s players is an exercise in futility. After the Lakers put up an anemic 84 points in a loss at Indianapolis earlier this month, Jackson said the topic of the books came up during a post-game lambasting of his team. “I told them, ‘You guys wouldn’t read the (expletive) things anyway, all you guys can do is play video games and watch porn movies.’” Well at least Phil has identified two things that they do well, because hustling and playing with heart haven’t been in their repertoire lately. I can certainly understand Phil’s frustration, he wants his team to master 'the art', not 'reverse cowgirl.' Sadly, I think Phil might be a little bit out of touch. He's coaching a group of guys who are young enough to be his grand-children. Porn and video games just so happen to be high priorities for many '20-something' young men in this country. Especially ones who are multi-millionaires, with loads of time to kill on the road. Back in Phil's day it was: Playboy, grass, Pong, and hookers. Today it's: Vivid, kush, Madden, and ho's. Phil acts like the league was full of Rhodes Scholars when he played. I'll bet he felt the same way about some of his teammates back then, as he does now about some of his current players. Phil seems like one of those really smug smart guys, the type who gets annoyed at someone's inability to relate on his level. But hey, I don't have to work for him so I'm not complaining. That and the fact that he helped bring titles back to Tinseltown, for a few years anyway.