Book it: Hard to get a read on Lakers
March 21, 2001
BY RICK TELANDER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
First of two parts
The Los Angeles Lakers were awaiting their books.
That's not to say they were eagerly awaiting their books--though some were--it's just that they had heard it was part of the Big Chief Triangle process.
"It wasn't much different from the Bulls," says Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who at least once or twice a year distributes selected books to individual players in a part-gift, part-educational ritual. "These guys kind of expected it. They were saying, `When do you give out the books?' They were waiting for them."
And when Jackson did give out this year's books before a recent long road trip, the presents were received with varying degrees of interest and skepticism.
Jackson went to a Barnes & Noble in Santa Monica and purchased the items, mostly novels, with some poetry and nonfiction thrown in, for every team member.
Center Shaquille O'Neal looked at his, a translation from the German of the Hermann Hesse fable, Siddhartha, and rolled his eyes.
"Why do I always get the Harvard books?" he said.
The big dummy.
All he had to do was open the large-type, 122-page novella and realize any college grad--even a recent diploma-earner from LSU--could read the simply-worded book in less time than it takes to get from Malibu to Orange County.
Not only that, but the classic tale of a young man's journey toward Buddha-inspired enlightenment is full of stuff that should resonate wildly with a modern-day, dominating, filthy-rich Lala-Land hedonist.
"Love stirred in the hearts of the young Brahmins' daughters when Siddhartha walked through the streets of the town," reads one passage in the book.
And there were the older gals interested in the young buck, too, notably the beautiful Kamala.
"Her body was as supple as a jaguar and a hunter's bow; whoever learned about love from her, learned many pleasures, many secrets. She played with Siddhartha for a long time, repulsed him, overwhelmed him, rejoiced at her mastery, until he was overcome and lay exhausted at her side."
Hey, now.
"It's about a young man with a lot of women and money," Jackson says. "And it's about finding happiness. I knew the book from reading it long ago, and I knew that he would enjoy it."
The reason Jackson chose the book for his giant man in the middle was because the coach wanted Shaq to realize that many things must be tried, found wanting and put aside before the true goal in life, or sport, can be approached.
The problem on the Lakers--last year's NBA champions, but now locked in a six-team battle for Western Conference supremacy--is the friction between O'Neal and his fabulously talented, sweet but stunningly immature teammate Kobe Bryant.
"I wanted Shaq to sense the discipline, the asceticism, the denial of food, sleep and other deprivations of Siddhartha along the path to salvation, and to see how Siddhartha found salvation finally through good works."
What Jackson hoped the center would glean from the book was that for the Lakers to be successful, Shaq would have to put aside all the material things he continued to accrue--the honors, wealth and, yes, sensual pleasures--and follow his inner voice to transcendence. And be tolerant of a willful young man like Bryant.
"Siddhartha had to find a path of his own intuition," Jackson says. "It's what I feel is the message of Buddha. It's for Shaq to find. Buddha had his own path, Mohammed had another, Jesus another. But it has to be your own path. It's not in material goods. I wanted Shaq to take the steps to inner peace, to become quiet, to get into the attitude of non-attention to desire. Not to eliminate it, but not to fall prey to desire. For Shaq it has to be his own path. Until you get on that path, there won't be an answer."
Well, you gotta admit, the big, smooth-faced guy at least looks like a modern-day Buddha.
And here's the deal: Shaq liked the book.
He read it and felt its power.
"He really seemed to like it," Jackson says. "He knew what I was trying to get across and he appreciated it."
Then there's Kobe.
Jackson gave him a 1994 novel by Louis De Bernieres, entitled Corelli's Mandolin.
It is a tale of the steadfastness and adaptiveness of certain Greek island residents during the occupation of their land by the Italians during World War II.
Bryant was raised for a good spell in Italy and speaks fluent Italian, and the coach thought this book might resonate with his flighty guard just as Siddhartha did with the Big Fella.
No chance.
"Kobe's a real Mediterranean kid," Jackson says. "I thought the book would be a good look at the culture he's attached to. It's a beautiful book. Tragic. But he didn't like it. Last year I gave him a book by Paul Beatty, White Boy Shuffle, about a black youth who grows up in a white community. But Kobe had no affinity for it. He's not willing to let someone else's ideas penetrate his mind."
Or penetrate his I-gotta-shoot-now-and-forever game.
"The point of the book was that you can't always dictate the terms of what your life is going to be," Jackson says. "Those Greeks are going to be overrun and organized by the Italians. So they learn how to win by losing, in a way. `We are going to be occupied, now how do we get along?' "
The point is, Bryant is undermining the Lakers by not realizing that success comes sometimes when you share, when you let go, when you submit and adapt.
"The other day I said to Kobe, `What's the problem?' " Jackson says. "He said, `The game's too boring for me. The offense is so simple. It doesn't display my talent.' I said, `I realize that. But we're trying to win games with the least amount of things going wrong, the fewest injuries, the least fatigue.' He said, `But it doesn't give me what I have to have for my game.'
"Kobe's having a hard time with the triangle offense this year. Not last year. Last year he could hardly wait to get to the spot on the floor where Michael Jordan had been. He wanted to be Michael. But it's a different team this year. We don't have a Scottie Pippen for him, the guy who allowed Michael to be Michael. That's the cross Kobe has to bear."
Jackson thinks for a moment.
"Someone told me that in high school, Kobe used to sabotage his own games. So the game could be close. So he could dominate at the end. To sabotage the team process, to be so self-centered in your own process . . . it's almost stupefying."
Jackson loves this young man, respects his potential, admires his decency.
He just can't read him.
Just as Kobe can't read the game. |
