EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -- Phil Jackson thinks he is just about ready to walk away from his unparalleled NBA coaching career. The Los Angeles Lakers are all hoping he will change his mind in the next week.
The 11-time NBA champion coach said Wednesday he is leaning toward retirement. After a full season of speculation on his health and future, Jackson will wait for the results of another battery of medical tests before informing Lakers owner Jerry Buss of his final decision late next week.
The 64-year-old Jackson is the most successful coach in league history by almost any measure, with a .705 regular-season winning percentage, a record 225 postseason victories and two more titles than Boston's Red Auerbach. His Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA finals last week to claim their second straight title.
"Some of it's about health," Jackson said. "Some of it is just the way I feel right now. I've had vacillating feelings about it. It's hard not to feel like coming back when you ... have an opportunity to coach a team that's this good, but it's what I feel like right now."
Jackson will drive to his home in Montana soon. He didn't attend the Lakers'victory parade through downtown Los Angeles Monday, instead undergoing tests on a body with two replaced hips, a sore knee requiring a brace, and a previous heart problem.
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"We all want him back," Kobe Bryant said Wednesday. "He knows that. I've stressed it to him over and over. ... I don't even want to think about that right now. It's killing my buzz."
