Sacred Hoops

Phil Jackson, a former NBA player and head coach of the Chicago Bulls, writes this memoir about his quest to integrate spiritual principles with professional basketball. Drawing on Zen Buddhism, Christianity, and Lakota Sioux teachings, Jackson describes how he built championship teams by fostering selflessness, mindfulness, and compassion.

Jackson opens the book in March 1995, when Michael Jordan walked into the Bulls' team room at the Sheri L. Berto Center, the team's training facility. Jordan had retired in 1993 to play minor league baseball, and with a baseball strike threatening his second career, he began practicing with the Bulls again. The media frenzy bordered on religious fervor, yet Jordan's return exposed a fundamental problem: Most of his new teammates were so awestruck that they became passive spectators rather than active participants. Jackson recognized that the team lacked the chemistry needed for a championship and that individual brilliance alone could not produce sustained success.

Jackson traces this understanding back to his upbringing in a strict Pentecostal household in North Dakota. His mother, Elisabeth, was a passionate evangelist who filled his mind with Bible passages, while his father, Charles, was a warm, compassionate minister. At twelve or thirteen, Jackson failed to experience "speaking in tongues," the central practice of Pentecostal worship, despite years of effort. This failure shook his faith and pushed him toward basketball, where he led Williston High School to the 1963 state championship before attending the University of North Dakota.

A pivotal early experience occurred when Jackson tore his shoulder pitching for an American Legion team. His brother Joe, a psychology graduate student, taught him self-hypnosis techniques that let him quiet his mind and allow his body's natural rhythm to take over. Joe also introduced him to Zen Buddhism, sparking a lifelong spiritual exploration. At UND, Jackson broadened his intellectual horizons and was named a first-team All-American before being drafted by the New York Knicks.

Under Knicks coach Red Holzman, Jackson transformed from a self-centered scorer into a team-oriented defender, learning that awareness was everything and that the collective "We" mattered more than the individual "Me." A severe back injury sidelined him for over a year, but he returned to contribute to the Knicks' 1973 championship. At the victory celebration, however, he felt empty, recognizing that winning alone did not bring lasting happiness.

After his first marriage ended, Jackson explored yoga, Sufi practices, and the charismatic Christian movement before turning seriously to Zen meditation in the mid-1970s. Guided by Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, he practiced zazen, a form of sitting meditation, and found it quieted his hyperactive mind. He married his second wife, June, and began integrating Zen's emphasis on compassion with Christianity's teaching that love is a conquering force. His father's death in 1979 was marked by a moment his Lakota friends found significant: At the funeral, an English sparrow landed on Jackson's shoulder and touched everyone present, which the Lakota interpreted as the father's spirit bidding farewell. The experience freed Jackson from lingering guilt about his religious heritage.

Jackson's playing career ended in 1978, and he spent the early 1980s coaching the Albany Patroons in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), a low-budget minor league. There he experimented with selfless basketball: equal salaries, democratic playing time, and rotating five-man units. He enlisted novelist Charley Rosen as an unpaid trainer, and together they built a family-like team culture. Jackson also coached summer teams in Puerto Rico, where raucous crowds and unpredictable conditions taught him to cope with chaos. A defining moment came when, meditating in a dressing room, he found himself inches from a tarantula, a lifelong phobia, and sat through the fear until it passed. Back in Albany, a painful lesson arose when county executive Jim Coyne overrode Jackson's policies and reinstated a player Jackson had suspended. Jackson yielded to the interference, and the team lost its cohesion. He learned to trust his instincts and never let outside pressure override his commitment to the group.

By 1987, Jackson was preparing to leave basketball when Jerry Krause, the Bulls' vice president of basketball operations, offered him an assistant coaching position. Jackson joined a staff that included Tex Winter, inventor of the triangle offense, a continuous-motion system requiring all five players to move in coordinated patterns. The system demanded selflessness and functioned as awareness in action. Krause had also drafted Scottie Pippen, a versatile forward with near-genius basketball instincts, and Horace Grant, a generous-hearted power forward, to complement Jordan. When head coach Doug Collins was dismissed after the 1988-89 season, Krause promoted Jackson.

As head coach, Jackson won over Jordan in a private meeting, asking him to share the spotlight so teammates could grow. He named center Bill Cartwright cocaptain and introduced mindfulness meditation with the help of George Mumford, a colleague of mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn. Jackson also integrated Lakota warrior ideals into team culture, framing each season as a sacred quest and using movie clips spliced with game footage to teach with humor.

By 1990 the triangle offense began clicking, but the Detroit Pistons remained the obstacle. The Pistons employed the "Jordan Rules," a scheme of triple-teaming Jordan whenever he drove to the basket. After a humiliating loss to Detroit in the 1990 playoffs, the team's bond solidified. Jackson identified anger, not the Pistons, as the real enemy and taught players to absorb punishment without retaliating, drawing on Lakota and Buddhist principles of competing fiercely while respecting the opponent.

In 1990-91, the Bulls finished 61-21 and swept Detroit in the Eastern Conference finals, refusing to retaliate against brutal fouls. They defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games for their first championship. Jordan insisted his teammates join him in a post-victory commercial, signaling his transformation from solo artist to team player.

Jackson describes the 1991-92 season as near-perfect harmony: The team finished 67-15, and his leadership became "invisible," with the group intelligence surpassing any individual's contributions. The Bulls defeated the Portland Trail Blazers for their second title. The third championship followed in 1992-93 against the Phoenix Suns, sealed when Grant made a selfless pass to Bulls guard John Paxson for a game-winning three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in Game 6. Jackson considers this moment the purest embodiment of his philosophy.

Jordan retired in October 1993 after the murder of his father. The 1993-94 season tested Jackson's methods without basketball's greatest player. A crisis erupted in the playoffs against the Knicks when Pippen, angry that Jackson drew up the final play for Bulls forward Toni Kukoc rather than himself, refused to re-enter a tied game with 1.8 seconds left. Kukoc hit the game-winner, and Cartwright broke into tears confronting Pippen for his selfishness. The team healed through honest conversation but lost the series in seven games.

Jordan returned in spring 1995, but the rebuilt team lacked cohesion and lost to the Orlando Magic in the second round. Jackson used the loss as a teacher, meeting individually with each player and envisioning a new team.

In the epilogue, Jackson details the acquisition of Dennis Rodman, a brilliant but volatile rebounder from the San Antonio Spurs. Despite Rodman's reputation for controversy, Jackson connected with him in a largely silent meeting, feeling they communicated "by our hearts." The 1995-96 Bulls finished 72-10, the best regular-season record in NBA history, then defeated the Seattle Supersonics in six games for the championship. After the final game on Father's Day, Jordan collapsed on the locker room floor clutching the game ball. The team gathered one last time in a circle, joined hands, and said the Lord's Prayer, completing the greatest season in NBA history.