Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior

Phil Jackson, ex-NBA player (he was twice champion, in 1970 and 1973, with the Knicks) was one of the greatest coach American basketball ever knew. Having supervised players as difficult as Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O'Neal, or, Kobe Bryant, he was the one who made the Bulls the mythic team that it was (6 NBA Championships between 1989 and 1998) and who launched the Lakers into the same legendary status.

He here reveals the secrets behind such a success, and that lies upon an unorthodox view of the game. One word: spirituality.

He studied philosophy, psychology, religions, and, influenced by a deep Christian education, Zen Buddhism, and the mysticism from the Sioux Lakota, he will use this whole heritage to show more shape the teams under his control. Beyond the cynicism and selfishness ruling within high level sports, he firmly believed indeed that athletes are not motivated by greed or fear, not even by money, but by a passion for the game, for competition, and for their surrounding team.

From there flows a democratic view of what is a team, where players are forced to stop being obsessed by stats and ego, to transcend instead the 'I' into 'we', a philosophy fully translated onto the triangle offense that he contributed to develop.

Here's a book dealing mostly with basketball, but which also is a gate opened upon spirituality (Zen especially) and from which transpires such a modesty, wisdom, depth, that it's hard to don't recommend it enough. show less

Fascinating book about Phil Jackson and the Bulls. His philosophy about both life and sports. It's really a great leadership book, how to lead not just manage. Read this while I still in my basketball fan phase. Fascinating insights on basketball and also Phil Jackson is a very interesting individual.

Sacred Hoops was another short book I finished. I often have multiple books open at the same time depending on what room I’m in. Phil Jackson, the head coach of my Lakers, wrote this book. At the time of this book he was the coach of the Bulls. An acquaintance of mine let me borrow this book because I’m a diehard Lakers fan. I found this book somewhat interesting but overall found it to be greatly wanting. I was interested in this book because he told me that Phil Jackson is a Christian Buddhist. Philosophy of religions if fun so I read through it. It is a short book around 225 ish pages. I wondered how he could be a Zen Christian and was hoping to get some insight into it. Unfortunately the answer was not really in this book. show more

Basically, this book was about Phil's Christian family background how he did not feel the spirit like others did and how his brother turned him on Zen Buddhism. It was interesting that he spent a lot of time with the Lakota Siouxs. Basically it traces how he was coached by various people, the use and honing of the triangle offense to keep his opponents guessing and opening up the floor to make better shots possible. I'm sorry but I'd only give this weak book 1.5 and being generous maybe a 2 stars out of 5. The only reason I'm rating it that high is because Jackson is a winner and had some interesting things to say about not being selfish but playing basketball as a team effort. I also appreciated is talking about Michael Jordan and how he focused on getting Jordan’s buy in and how he and Jordan observed each other at first, how Jackson became a player coach on his way to becoming the head coach and how he lost and won championships and some of his family background and the death of his father and his first and second wife history. I know I'm talking a lot but I'm going to bed soon and want to say something about this book. Some people might enjoy it but I didn't much like it if you haven’t got that yet. It might be worth one read but that's about it. I can’t wait to get rid of this book. show less

Is this book really a classic?! And why? I picked up this book hoping for some spiritual 'mmph' mixed in with some basketball. In the end, I don't feel like this book succeeded in giving me very much of either.

Not an extremely good book, but the man's got a lot of rings.