The Last Dance: Things we learned from episodes 3 & 4

2. Phil Jackson – Zen master extraordinaire

Did I already mention somewhere in this article that Phil Jackson took acid?

Now, it’s unclear what the frequency of his illicit drug use was, but Jackson was not at all shy about exploring the different beacons of the world’s spiritual realms in efforts to expand his preternatural horizons.

In fact, he used many of his Zen-inherited tactics to strengthen the mental intuitions of the players that operated under him.

A self-tabbed hippie, Jackson couldn’t have arrived at peak adulthood at any better time in American history for folks of his naturalistic, progressive mindset. Experimentation was at an all-time high around the same years that Jackson was developing into a fully-fledged man and coming to his own conclusions about some of the more perplexing entities of the world.

And experiment he did.

In fact, LSD was not the only hallucinogen he enjoyed dabbling in – he also cited a certain positive regard for marijuana as well, revealing his concerns with its lack of legalization to media members years ago.

He’s tried a few things, to say the least, but aside from carrying some killer personal stories from his heyday with him to the head coaching position in Chicago in 1989, he brought along a mental approach that was entirely unheard of.

Like I said before: 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical, and Jackson was ahead of his time when it came to this aspect of coaching.

He emphasized brain recharging and consistent sleep patterns long before NBA teams employed specific contractors to study and monitor their effects on players, and initiated several team bonding exercises that stretched far beyond the circumferences of basketball.

His methodical practices of Eastern philosophy saw him partaking in meditations with his players, enforcing visualization strategies, and even prioritizing quiet moments of togetherness in a sport that required some of the loudest forms of verbal communication –  a uniting strategy he believed would do wonders for the collective inner spirits of his unit – so that they would be able to become one without having to speak the slightest word.

Jackson believed in a holistic approach to his team: that no part was greater than its whole – which rendered even a figure like Michael Jordan himself, just a contributing part to a greater good.

As crazy an idea this may seem, it was ultimately Jackson’s mind, of course, coupled with talents like Jordan and Pippen, that was the driving ammunition behind their valiant quests towards supremacy.