The Los Angeles Lakers are arguably the most storied franchise in NBA history and in sports history overall. The biggest names have played for the Lakers: Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, and many more.
Legendary players and different eras of greatness bring elite head coaches. The Lakers have multiple of the greatest coaches ever, including the best of them all, Phil Jackson.
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Announced on Tuesday, the Lakers are set to honor Jackson by putting a statue of him outside of Crypto.com Arena.
Other notable statues outside of the arena include some of the best players and coaches ever. Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kareem Abdul Jabar headline the players who are immortalized. Most recently, Pat Riley, the head coach for the Lakers in the Magic era, had his statue unveiled.
Phil Jackson’s Laker Legacy
Jackson spent 11 seasons as the Lakers’ head coach. In those 11 seasons, LA was a contender for almost all of them. Jackson took the job in 1999, after a storied career as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan.
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It didn’t take long for the Lakers to succeed under Jackson, as the Lakers won a three-peat from 2000-2002. Three consecutive championships, and O’Neal won the league MVP in 2000. Under Jackson’s leadership, arguably the greatest duo in history dominated the league with O’Neal and Bryant.
The success didn’t stop there, though. After a brief exit from the franchise in 2004, Jackson returned as head coach in 2005. The Lakers struggled through a few lackluster seasons until 2008, when they traded for Pau Gasol as Bryant’s next running mate.
After Gasol joined the roster, the Lakers made three straight NBA Finals appearances. Jackson won his 12th and 13th NBA rings as the Lakers went back-to-back in 2009-2010.
Jackson has 11 rings as a head coach: six with the Bulls and five with the Lakers. The other two rings are as a player for the New York Knicks. Jackson was actually on the last Knicks team to win the title in 1973 before the Knicks won the 2026 NBA Finals.
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