What did ex-NBA coach Phil Jackson say? Former Bulls coach under fire for recent remarks

Legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson recently got in some trouble for his comments about the current state of the league while on a podcast.

Jackson joined music producer Rick Rubin on the Tetragammaton podcast, and while on the show, said that he hasn't watched the NBA since the 2020 bubble in Orlando.

The coach is under fire because he said one of the big reasons he stopped watching basketball was the social justice messaging on the back of players' jerseys in the bubble.

“They had things on their back like 'Justice' and a funny thing happened like, 'Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity knocked him down,'" Jackson said. "Some of my grandkids thought it was pretty funny to play up those names; I couldn't watch that."

Jackson continued:

“They had things on their back like 'Justice' and a funny thing happened like, 'Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity knocked him down. Some of my grandkids thought it was pretty funny to play up those names; I couldn't watch that."

In the bubble, the league allowed NBA players to wear slogans like “Freedom”, “Liberation”, “Equality” “Black Lives Matter” on the back of their jerseys in place of their last names. It was a move to help the players express their support for the social justice movement that was raging in the summer of 2020 in the United States.

Massive protests sprung up around the country after the death of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota. Floyd’s death was one of many in which an unarmed African American was killed by police. Games in the bubble were postponed after some of these deaths and protests.

Phil Jackson's views on mixing politics with basketball

Jackson did not enjoy the intersection of politics with basketball. He says this is why he has lost interest in the league and does not like the message the NBA displayed with the slogans on the jerseys.

"It was trying to cater to an audience or trying to bring a certain audience to the game, and they didn't know it was turning other people off. People want to see sports as non-political. Politics stays out of the game; it doesn't need to be there."

Jackson also got in some hot water in a 2016 interview with ESPN where he called LeBron James’ business crew a “posse” while making comments about the current culture in basketball. Many viewed the comment as racially charged.