More Kind Words from Phil

You may have heard all about Phil Jackson's X-Mas day assault on Shaq's work ethic. Just in case the Big Fella is still a little sore over this, he would do well to check out Phil's recent remarks on one of his own, forward Vladimir Radmanovic:

"He's a space cadet," Jackson said. "He could be on Mars. I know it's not on Venus, but he could be on Mars. He's one of those guys that you go like, 'Do you understand really what we're trying to get accomplished here?' And he'll go, 'Yeah, I know what's going on.' And then you ask him the next day if he knows that and he goes like, 'Yeah, sure.' And then you go, 'OK, demonstrate it to me,' and he'll lose [focus]."

Phil then goes on to explain how Radman needs to better his shot selection, which is a valid criticism on this team. The subtext here is that the former Clipper and Sonic has been having problems with The Triangle; I've never been sure if the offense is complicated, players hate it, or some combination of the two. Either way, I can see why Jackson would get the mind games going in this situaton.

Let's see what he has to say about pet reclamation project Kwame Brown, a player whom Jackson has taken from punchline to professional:

Jackson stayed with the frontcourt for more criticism, moving on to Kwame Brown, who implied after Wednesday's victory in Orlando that he does his best work on offense with isolation plays.

"That's the only way he knows how to play," Jackson said. "He only thinks he can play if his number's called. It's a real deficit that way. Most of the time, he either travels or loses the ball on the way to the hoop. The little things that he can do for us are very important. He doesn't have to worry about that [scoring] aspect."

Look, I know he's a coaching genius and all, and I get that sometimes tough love is in order. But am I the only one who thinks Jackson just likes to complain? Like so much of what he passes off as "playing the media" or "sending a sidelong message" is really just serial kvetching. Jackson is certainly getting older-maybe he's letting his crankiness get in the way of his canniness. If you ask me, that's what doomed Larry Brown's time with the Knicks.