Zen Master right man for Yao

1. As I've acknowledged already, he wasn't going to draft Cousy and that was a mistake. Yet somehow in your mind that one single mistake outweighs the dozens of goods he has done. Great coaches do make mistakes, or need I make a list of mistakes Phil Jackson made and "prove" he's a lousy coach.

2. Underdogs sometimes win games. I could also list a handful of other teams that won 55 games. Does that prove their coaches are great coaches too?

3. Auerbach had at one point (if I remember correctly), 6 HoFer on the same squad. If you doubt his coaching abilities, think about this: Jackson has problems with Shaq and Kobe alone, imagine him dealing with 6 at their prime.

4. You can't tell the difference between corrolation and causation. Bill Russell didn't cause Auerbach to be great. They were both great in their own right. If we are to argue (like you did) that Russell made Auerbach, we can also do the reverse and argue Auerbach made Russell, that he only became what he became from Red's teachings. And the fact is, a few of the players on that Celtics team were not a shoe in for the HoF before they played on Red's team.

5. Red was there from the start, Phil Jackson was there when the pieces already were in place. Red drafted and shaped that team, Phil Jackson joined teams that had established greats. The two aren't even close.