National Basketball Association

Jeanie Buss says Phil Jackson loves the Twitter flak: 'He can take it'

Published Jun. 30, 2015 1:29 p.m. ET

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Phil Jackson joined Twitter a little more than two years ago, and in doing so opened himself up to the endless criticism professional athletes, coaches and executives are always dealing with. But don’t worry, it doesn’t bother the legendary coach. In fact, he loves it.

In a lengthy interview with Sam Amick of USA Today Sports earlier this week, Jackson’s girlfriend, Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss, was asked about Phil’s tendency to stir up trouble with some of his tweets. She says that is hardly an accident.

“Come on, he jabs at Twitter with some of his tweets (laughs). That’s Phil. And whatever comes his way, whatever washes over him in terms of criticism or backlash or whatever, he can take it. He loves it,” Buss explained. “It has invigorated him.”

Most recently, Jackson took a lot of heat on Twitter when he criticized NBA teams who build their offense around the 3-point shot. Jackson said NBA basketball is all about “penetration,” and that is often the case. However, the NBA champion Golden State Warriors are very much a jump-shooting team.

Buss was asked whether she saw Jackson’s tweets about 3-point shooting in real-time.

“I can tell on my timeline when he’s done something, because his name comes up in all the basketball world,” she said. “I didn’t know he was going to tweet it -- you know, Phil is a big boy, he knows exactly what he’s doing, everything is for a reason, and so he can answer those questions. But any arrows that come his way, he can survive. It just makes him tougher. It’s good.”

As we learned recently with his criticism of today’s NBA game, Jackson doesn’t need Twitter to voice his opinion. But if drumming up controversy on social media is a way for a guy who is pushing 70 to stay motivated, more power to Phil.

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