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Out of the ordinary Lakers coach uses unusual motivational methods
Posted: Sunday June 18, 2000 06:51 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- The lights are dimmed in Phil Jackson's screening room. He pops in a videotape and the Los Angeles Lakers get ready to study. Only they aren't watching game action. A picture of Adolf Hitler alternately appears with one of Sacramento coach Rick Adelman. Next up is the cocky mug of Kings star Jason Williams, followed by actor Edward Norton in his skinhead role from "American History X." "It put us in the mindset that these guys were against us," Lakers reserve center John Salley said. Jackson's cinema study worked. The Lakers got the point, beating the Kings in a first-round playoff series. They went on to defeat Phoenix and then Portland to advance to the NBA Finals, where they are one victory away from the title. Hollywood isn't just at Lakers games in the form of actors Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Denzel Washington and Norton. It's in the team's locker room, too. During the playoffs, Jackson has used footage from such disparate videos as "American History X," "The Green Mile" and The Three Stooges to illustrate the mindset he wants his players to possess. "He splices things that he wants to say, and he lets the film say it," Salley said. "These guys recognize what needs to be done." During the seven-game Western Conference finals against Portland, Jackson showed a scene from "The Green Mile" in which a nervous death-row guard urinates on himself. The other guards assure him that whatever happens on the mile, stays on the mile. "That's an attitude of team work," Salley said. Another scene chosen by Jackson involved the guards discussing an execution gone awry. The same could be said of the Lakers' performance in losing Game 6 to the Trail Blazers. "It wasn't perfect execution," Salley said, "but they're dead and we're still here." Even The Three Stooges have something to offer when Jackson wants to go over the triangle offense. "Sometimes when we're running it, we look like The Three Stooges," Salley said, smiling. Jackson's point is that everything the Lakers read or see can be a message. "Phil makes it fun, entertaining as well as serious," Salley said. "We know when to laugh and giggle, and we know when to be serious. He makes sure we're not bored." Hollywood infuses the Lakers' organization more than any other in the NBA. Players can network during pregame warmups with the town's biggest power brokers (Steven Spielberg, Michael Ovitz). Advice from eager agents on a post-hoops career in movies, music and TV is only a phone call away. Some of the Lakers aren't waiting until their playing days are over. Shaquille O'Neal, Rick Fox, Kobe Bryant and Salley are shooting for stardom off the court, with varying degrees of success. Dennis Rodman had similar ambitions during his brief stint with the Lakers last year. O'Neal, the 7-foot-1, 330-pound center, has worn size-22 pointy slippers as a genie in the 1996 flop "Kazaam," and donned body armor to fight in the urban jungle in "Steel," a $23 million bust. Bryant, the 21-year-old All-Star guard, has recorded a hip-hop CD called "Visions." Columbia Records has temporarily delayed its release until after the playoffs, when Bryant is available to promote it. If the CD fails, Bryant could always sing on the record label owned by O'Neal. Salley was the host of a failed game show on Fox Family Channel. Undeterred, he's produced a film and is shopping around a proposed TV series. As soon as the NBA Finals end, Fox will head to New York to resume shooting episodes of the HBO prison drama "Oz." He plays a convict serving 12 years for assault and attempted rape. "I want to be known as a basketball player until this is done, and then I want to be known as an actor," he said. Fox, a nine-year NBA pro, calls himself a rookie actor, yet he's the most successful of the show biz-minded Lakers. He's been in four movies, including Spike Lee's "He Got Game," and has an agent and acting coach. "Living in L.A. and being a part of this entertainment world outside basketball has allowed me to network and watch and learn from those involved in the entertainment industry," Fox said. His handsome looks worked against him when he auditioned for "The Green Mile," the Oscar-nominated movie that starred Tom Hanks. "I told him, 'You don't stand a chance,'" said Michael Clarke Duncan, a then-unknown who won a role that earned him an Oscar nomination. "They're looking for somebody more rugged. Rick is a very handsome guy. He could be on the cover of 'GQ.'" Duncan sees a successful acting career for Fox when the forward's contract runs out in six years. "I wish I could team up with him and be a couple of cops," Duncan said of possible film roles. Although Fox married actress and pop singer Vanessa L. Williams this year, he shuns his wife's help. "She's on a different level," he said. "I've constantly reminded her that I have a long way to go. Her thing is Broadway, and I don't have that desire quite yet to go on Broadway."
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