Friday, November 7, 2008

A player's desire to get the ball

When asked recently about similarities between his Lakers team this season and the Bulls teams he coached in the 1990s, Phil Jackson had this to say:

"I don't know if we have the same ruggedness that we had, that was brought to the team by Dennis Rodman. He had that character where he was going to lay his body on the line, dying to get the ball back, dying to defend. It just wasn't in their makeup to lighten up. They wanted to work. They liked to work. This team is learning how to do that every-night action it takes in the NBA to win."