
Now that the NBA Finals have come to an end the focus now switches totally over to next season. We barely have time to catch our breath before next Thursday night when the 2010 NBA Draft will be held. July 1, is the day that all the madness begins as Free Agents can start listening to offers from teams that want them to become part of their rosters.
The NBA Summer League starts soon after that and this summer we will also have Team USA participating in International play. So we will have plenty of hoops to keep us occupied over the next couple of months. And before you know it October 1, will be here again which means the start of NBA training camps as the whole process starts over again.
However before we can truly say good-bye to the season that officially ended Thursday night as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in the seventh game of the NBA Finals; there are still some loose ends that need tying up. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Clippers are currently without a head coach. And there could be changes on the bench with the Lakers and Celtics as well.
Los Angeles head coach Phil Jackson or as New York Vinnie likes to call him “Coach Zen“ will soon be without a contract and there have been rumors that the club would like him to take a pay cut if he wants to continue as the bench boss of the team that he has just won back to back NBA Titles with. So needless to say it is not a lead pipe cinch that he will be back with the franchise next season.
Boston head coach Doc Rivers is signed through the upcoming season but he has a different dilemma. Rivers has three of his children who will hit major milestones starting in the fall. The Celtics head coach has a son and daughter who are graduating college next spring and a younger son who will be graduating high school at the same time. And all three of them are involved in team sports at their respective schools. The Boston bench boss loves his gig but he would regret not being able to travel with his children and watch them perform in the season ahead.
Now New York Vinnie will say up front that the chances of the scenario I am going to propose will most likely not occur. In fact the chances of it happening are pretty slim; but New York Vinnie has seen too many strange things happen in my time on this Planet to rule it out. If the stars line-up correctly we could have a once in a lifetime situation on our hands that would make things to say the least very interesting next season.
In New York Vinnie’s opinion if the Los Angeles Lakers ask “Coach Zen” to take a pay cut to keep his present position after winning the Finals two straight years they are insulting the man. New York Vinnie has his differences with Phil Jackson but there is no denying he is a great head coach. Let us remember that Jackson and the Lakers have parted company once before as the Shaq and Kobe era came to an end. So “Coach Zen” has been down this road before.
Now if Rivers decides that it is more important for he and his family to spend the year with them and Jackson is low-balled by the Lakers is it possible that “Coach Zen” could be the bench boss for the Boston Celtics next season? If Jax really wants to kick Lakers owner Jerry Buss where it hurts the most it just could happen.
Although Jackson has won more NBA Finals as a head coach than anyone else in the history of the NBA; he is tied in another category. Both “Coach Zen” and Miami Heat President Pat Riley have won NBA Finals with two different teams. If Jackson takes over for Rivers in Boston he could conceivably break that tie by winning the NBA Finals with the Celtics. If “Coach Zen” is looking for one more mountain to climb before he decides to call it a career Boston could be that challenge he is looking for. They used to say when Bear Bryant was the football coach of the Crimson Tide “He can take his’n and beat your’n, and he can take your’n and beat his’n.” If “Coach Zen” goes to Boston for next season he could actually do that!
Now most likely Jackson will re-sign with the Lakers and New York Vinnie thinks that Rivers will work out something with the Celtics so that he can keep running the team on the floor. But as New York Vinnie pointed out earlier you can never rule anything out; especially in the world of Pro Sports.