Jackson 'leaning towards retiring'


By Dave McMenamin
ESPNLosAngeles.com
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson used it as a running joke this season when asked if he was leaning one way or another regarding his coaching future. "I'm leaning against the wall," Jackson said in a tunnel in Oklahoma City and later, "I'm leaning against the podium," before a playoff game at Staples Center.


Jackson
He dropped the joke and got serious about his decision Wednesday.
"I'm leaning towards retiring but I have not made up my mind," Jackson said.
The 64-year-old coach told Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss that he planned on completing the medical tests and evaluations that will completed by Thursday. He will then drive out to his Lake House in Montana on Friday, spend a week checking in on the results of those tests and make his final decision a week from Friday.
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"I'll take a week after the medical tests are done," Jackson said. "Some of it's about health, some of it's about that's the way I feel right now. I've had vacillating feelings about it. It's hard not to feel like coming back when you're speaking to these players and have an opportunity to coach a team that's this good. But, it's what I feel like right now and what I feel like in the process that's gone through. It's just something I'm going to sit with and feel out and after I'm through talking about all the rest of it with the doctors, then I'll make the final decision."
Jackson, who has won five titles with the Lakers and six titles with the Chicago Bulls, has flirted with retirement in recent years. He has been open throughout the season about the toll the NBA schedule takes on him physically.
Jackson was a no-show at the parade on Monday celebrating the Lakers win over the Boston Celtics in seven games in the NBA Finals. A Lakers spokesperson said Jackson was undergoing medical tests.
Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com




Los Angeles Lakers' Phil Jackson 'leaning towards retiring' - ESPN Los Angeles