Late in 2000, their first season together, Kobe Bryant lamented to confidants he never had a private conversation with new Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
The only interaction came when Jackson gave Bryant a book to read — “Black Like Me.” The nonfiction classic depicts a white man in the 1960s transforming his skin to pretend to be black.
Bryant, who was raised in Italy and spent his high school years in a tony Philadelphia suburb, was sensitive early on about not having the inner-city street cred of an Allen Iverson. Bryant was offended by Jackson’s book selection.
“This is what f–ked it up for [Phil],’’ Bryant confidant Scoop Jackson said in “Showboat,” the recently released Bryant biography. “Kobe’s like, ‘What the f–k is this?’ You can do a lot of mind tricks, but that crossed the line because of the racial issues.’’
The 574-page biography, authored by Roland Lazenby, depicts a sordid Jackson-Bryant relationship in its first four years (2000-2004). It makes the Zen Master and Carmelo Anthony’s current dysfunction look tame by comparison. It wasn’t until Jackson’s second Lakers stint (2006-2011) that he and Bryant stopped feuding.
No wonder, at the recent Tribeca Film Festival, that Bryant, now a filmmaker, had this to say when asked if Jackson and Anthony’s relationship is irreparable: “Not from what I’ve been through with Phil.’’
Jackson, on a mission to ship Anthony out of town, attempted to get Bryant traded multiple times, according to the book. NBA Players Association director Michele Roberts, who has reported Jackson’s behavior regarding Anthony to commissioner Adam Silver, would have had a field day if she ran the union back then.
In Jackson’s final season (2003-04) of his first Lakers term, he halted contract extension talks with?the team.
“Phil came into a meeting with us and made the comment that he couldn’t coach Kobe anymore and he wouldn’t come back next year if Kobe came back,’’ Lakers assistant Tex Winter said in “Showboat.’’ “It was really at that time [owner] Jerry Buss made up his mind he was going with Kobe and not Phil.’’
The book also details the enormous rift between Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant and Jackson’s decision to side with the big center. Jackson was infuriated that former general manager Jerry West got credit for his first title with the Lakers. So Bryant tweaked Jackson at the championship ceremony, the book says, by showing up in a “44” West jersey.
Winter, a Bryant ally, prevented the Jackson-Bryant war from exploding completely. Insiders believe Winter, the triangle pioneer who is ailing after suffering a stroke seven years ago, has been missed in New York, where he may have made Jackson more palatable as team president.
Bryant shared a kinship with Winter, who, the book says, “stressed to his new pupil he aimed his comments at a player’s actions, not at the player himself.’’
Jackson sought to convey that sentiment at last month’s press conference regarding his previous knock of the Knicks star on national TV for being “a ball-stopper’’ in the triangle offense. It was also Jackson’s early lament about Bryant.
“I said he holds the ball and that became a sticking point,’’ Jackson said. “I’ve never, ever criticized Carmelo. That’s all supposition by papers. Holding the ball is not a criticism. That’s what he does. That’s pure fact. A person better be able to take that if they’re going to be coached or else you can’t be part of this organization.’’
Nor did Jackson think his March tweet endorsing an anti-Melo article was critical. The tweet stated: “I learned you don’t change the spot on a leopard with Michael Graham in my CBA daze.”
“He’s an elite scorer — we’re not trying to make him into Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. That’s what the article was about, wasn’t it?’’ Jackson said last month.
After Jackson departed the Lakers the first time, he bashed Bryant in his own book, branding him “uncoachable’’ and confirmed he had wanted to trade him. When Jackson returned for his second act, Lazenby’s book says, Jackson made Bryant a promise not to attack him in the media.
“If you look back from 2005 to 2011, he never called out Kobe,’’ former LA Times and current ESPN columnist J.A. Adande said in “Showboat.’’
Jackson’s early distaste for Bryant should have foreshadowed the Jackson-Anthony clash. As Winter said in the book, “Look at Phil’s record and the people he’s gone over, at how Phil just willed himself over people.’’
Jackson attended Bryant’s movie premiere in Tribeca two weeks ago. They’ve become friends. A major difference between Bryant and Anthony is that Bryant loved the triangle, as the book makes clear ad infinitum. But as a book and film festival suggests, the last scene of Anthony-Jackson remains a mystery.