Phil Jackson fans have been wondering when he would make a move back into the world of basketball. A man who has more NBA Championship rings than fingers just figures to get back into the game at some point.
Lakers fans wanted Jackson back to coach the team but, for yet undisclosed reasons, that never happened. Some say it was the Lakers front office… some say that Phil just didn’t want it badly enough. Whatever happened, Jackson decided that retirement was just too good to return to what we know is a very stressful job.
But now Phil Jackson is going to be involved with something that is at least basketball related. Jackson will be an executive producer of a TV show being made for Showtime about a family that runs a basketball team hummmm. Sound familiar to anyone?
The new show will obviously have a wealth of material to draw from simply by relating stories from all the years of Buss family and their experiences as owners of the Los Angeles Lakers and a sports based empire in the LA area started by family icon Jerry Buss who passed away last year.
Jerry Buss was one of the most well known… and well liked… figures in professional sports and members of his family are still running the Lakers organization today. His daughter, Jeanie Buss, who is also Phil Jackson’s fiancée, will also be an executive producer of the new TV show along with Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis.
In a recent interview, Ms. Buss said that her experiences working with the Lakers would add spice to the stories told in the new series. “We’ve seen so much, the things that go on behind the scenes. We go to events and people ask us a lot of questions about what they don’t see. They know the game. They see the game, but they don’t know what leads up to getting the team on the court. Most people don’t know what makes a championship season or what it’s like to go through a losing season.”
The guy who is putting this all together has some impressive credentials when it comes to presenting sports related stories and action of film. Ron Shelton was the creative talent behind such memorable hits such as “White Men Can’t Jump”, “Tin Cup” and “Bull Durham”, so the series will not be without cinematic experience.
Although many fans would still like to see Phil Jackson back in a coaching role, you have to admit that this sounds like a pretty intriguing series on basketball.
