In an effort to promote his new book, Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson took a turn on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and explained how he handled the old Kobe-Shaq dynamic.
"It was probably one of the hardest challenges I had in coaching over all those years, 20 years that I coached because there was always this little tension about 'it's my team, it's my team, I want to play ball my style; I want to get the ball inside, no I want to do stuff outside, you know that kind of thing," he said.
Jackson reportedly writes in the book that he generally let the feud burn itself out, and rarely got involved.
"The idea is just basically -- you're a parent you have two kids -- are you going to get involved with every squabble that happens in your house?" he said. "You just can't do that, you wear yourself out trying to monitor that stuff."
Jackson and Bryant had at one point a historically tough relationship, especially when Kobe faced sexual assault charges. But now, they're in constant contact -- though Jackson said he avoids getting directly involved in the team and now talk about Bryant's individual game.
"It's hands off, you know Kobe texts me a considerable amount of time we send messages back and forth and I'll say 'looks like your pressed' or 'things were tough you had to do too much work last night, trying to carry the team when they're down' or whatever but we never get into the offense and stuff and we never get into the defense either," he said.
He also said he stays in contact with Dennis Rodman.
"He occasionally gets in touch with me but not by phone," he noted, not elaborating.
As for his interest in coming back to coaching, he said the Nets had called and he told them he had no interest.
"My head may be interested in coaching. But my body can't take it anymore," he said. "It's grueling."
