The relationship between Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson during the Los Angeles Lakers’ first three-peat years went past the boiling point. Jackson kept pressing Bryant’s buttons in public while Kobe dealt with turmoil off the court. This led to a massive rift between them, leaving the then-25-year-old All-Star seething and Jackson up in arms.
Reflecting on that dynamic back in 2016, the Black Mamba believed the Zen Master should have taken a different approach. He believed Phil’s message would have landed just fine without the theatrics. After all, Bryant knew what Jackson was up to, and all the latter needed to do was to be straightforward.
“I think that’s the part that really drove him crazy. I just said, ‘Phil, listen. You don’t have to play that shit with me. I understand what you’re doing. But I don’t need that,” Kobe said, per an ESPN feature article by Ramona Shelbourne.
“He kept pushing buttons. He kept getting frustrated. More and more frustrated,” added Bryant.
Kobe compares himself to a Batman villain
According to Bryant, Phil kept ribbing him in front of reporters to get on Shaquille O’Neal’s good side, labeling him as selfish and whatnot. He would have been okay if Jackson had told him straight up. But since he didn’t, Bryant felt insulted and distanced himself.
“I don’t play for the fame,” Kobe declared. “I don’t play for the approvals. There is nothing you need to say to me. Just tell me what you need me to do. My love is already here for the game.”
And lastly, he used a “Dark Knight” reference to explain what he felt. He alluded to the scene where Batman threatened the Joker, but the latter simply let out a cackle.
“The Joker is laughing,” Kobe said, “because there’s nothing you can threaten him with.”
Bringing up the infamous Batman villain (played by Heath Ledger in that movie) was out of left field. However, it made the utmost sense.
When he brought the Joker, Kobe was drawing a parallel. In “The Dark Knight,” the Joker is terrifying because he can’t be manipulated or controlled. There is nothing you can take from him or threaten him with.
Similarly, Kobe was saying that nobody has leverage over him when it comes to basketball, not even a highly intelligent championship coach like Jackson. His love for the game was intrinsic and he didn’t need the outside noise, especially coming from Phil, to thrive.
Kobe was “un-coachable”
At the height of their differences, Jackson called Bryant “un-coachable” in his book The Last Season. That was the year the Lakers made the finals against the Detroit Pistons and were clobbered into submission in five games. After the loss, the Lakers did not re-sign Jackson and O’Neal was traded to Miami.
While Kobe hated the “selfish” label, he recognized that Phil was just trying to do his job to “control” and “manage” the team. It was the method that Bryant had a problem with, so he showed Jackson he couldn’t be controlled.
“Thinking about it now. Yes, I am un-coachable, because you don’t have to manage me,” stated the late Lakers icon.
Interestingly, the pair worked past their conflict and won two more championships for the Lakers. Jackson returned in 2005, and, in three years, steered the franchise to the finals for the first time since O’Neal was in town.
Winning made their past clashes feel like a distant memory, but the Joker metaphor stuck. Just as the villain thrived without fear, Kobe thrived without the need for anyone’s leverage.