Phil Jackson wishes he could coach Christian Laettner
Phil Jackson is one of the more legendary NBA coaches, and he has achieved a lot of success in his career. First, it was because of his concepts and game planning, but also because of the talent he could coach. He he had the pleasure of coaching Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in his prime, and it led to him winning 11 rings as a coach.
Even though he coached two of the best players to possibly ever pick up a basketball, there are still players he wanted to take under his wing. At an appearance on the Patrick’s Day show, Jackson distributed to whomever he wished he trained.
“There are a lot of players you look at and say, ‘What a great player this guy is.’ “I think (Christian) Laettner is one of the guys that never played the way he was capable of playing in the NBA,” Jackson said. “I would love to coach a guy like that, who had talent, had leadership ability and probably never blossomed as an NBA player.”
“Laettner … He had talent, he had leadership ability. He probably never blossomed.”
Phil Jackson says he might have gotten the best out of Christian Laettner had he been given the chance to coach him 🗣
(via @dpshov)pic.twitter.com/1Cv3kiIUCJ
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) November 5, 2025
Laettner is known as one of the best college basketball players, but he never made it to the NBA. He was also part of the 1992 Dream Teamsince he was the only college player on the team.
Years ago, Shaquille O’Neal spoke about how Laettner motivated him to improve his game before he was drafted in 1992, but also mentioned how he dominated him in college.
“Christian ate me up in college,” Shaq said, via Sports Illustrated. “The first year he destroyed me. I didn’t know who he was. He killed me. The second year I kind of held my own and dominated the game, but we still lost.”
Had Jackson caught him at some point in his career, it would have been interesting to see what could have been.
2025-11-05 20:03:00
