Rumor has it that Phil Jackson could make a surprising return to the Lakers organization. Photo by Luca Carlino/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Phil Jackson serving as unofficial consultant to Lakers?

Originally posted on Game 7 | By Jennifer Withers Hoey | Last updated 3/9/22

The Los Angeles Lakers are 28-36 and sit ninth in the Western Conference. Presently, they are closer to the 12^th place San Antonio Spurs than they are to the eighth-place L.A. Clippers.

By any objective measure, this group is down bad right now.

Stars hate front office leaders. Players’ wives are beefing with troll media personalities. It’s a rough look all around.

Understandably, when times are toughest, nostalgia kicks in. And that is precisely what has happened in Los Angeles with the team’s former championship head coach, Phil Jackson.

According to Sam Amick and Bill Oram of The Athletic, Jackson is beginning to play an increasingly prominent role in L.A. affairs.

“Sources say Jackson, the Lakers legend and ex-fiancé of Buss, whose presence at Saturday’s win against Golden State was highlighted by the team’s Twitter account, has been in frequent contact with Buss about team matters all season long.

“The complicated and often uncomfortable dynamics surrounding the Westbrook situation, in particular, are known to have drawn his interest. As unofficial consultants go, they don’t get much more experienced or credible than Jackson.”

It’s worth remembering that Jackson’s most recent run in the NBA wasn’t exactly fruitful. He retired from coaching in 2011, joined the New York Knicks as an executive in March 2014 and was promptly dismissed as the Knicks’ team president in June 2017.

Obviously the Lakers are down bad right now, but Jackson likely wouldn’t be able to save them. The problem isn’t so much coaching as it is a deeply dysfunctional roster of past-their-prime stars who don’t quite realize how long in the tooth they’ve gotten.

The path forward for L.A. isn’t changing up the coaching staff, though obviously they can do that, too. It’s changing up the players.

Will they be able to get it done in the offseason? Time will tell.

This article first appeared on Game 7 and was syndicated with permission.

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