It was a tough way to end a Hall of Fame career, but Lakers' head coach Phil Jackson reiterated that Sunday's 122-86 blowout loss to the Mavericks in Dallas was his final game as an NBA coach. The Mavericks stunned the Lakers in their NBA Western Conference semifinals series, sweeping the two-time defending champs in four games. Jackson won 11 NBA championships in his 20 seasons as coach, and yesterday's loss made for only the sixth time that Jackson didn't reach the conference finals.
Jackson was asked after Sunday's game if he was done as a coach, and the Hall of Famer invoked the famous last words of a former U.S. President. "Yes, this is in all my hopes and aspirations that this is the final game that I'll coach," Jackson said. "This has been a wonderful run. I go out with a sour note after being fined $35,000 this morning by the league, so that's not fun having a feeling like I've been chased down the freeway by them. But as Richard Nixon says, 'You won't be able to kick this guy around anymore.'"
Jackson won 1,155 regular season games in his 20 seasons, an average of just under 58 wins per year. In addition to the all-time record 11 NBA titles, Jackson holds all-time NBA records for playoff wins (229) and playoff winning percentage (.688). Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
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