Phil at the Mike

After the Lakers defeated the Magic in overtime tonight, Phil Jackson the coach of the Lakers, met the press. I wonder if at President Obama's news conferences there are as many journalists. I do hope that the nature of the inquiries at the president's conferences are a bit more sophisticated.

"Phil, John Smith, West Daniels Times, can you talk a little bit about the camaraderie between Kobe and Gasol. It seemed like they had a little special something going there tonight".

"Phil, William Jones, WBVD, at the end of the first quarter the score was 15-15. That is a low scoring first quarter. What do you think was going on there."

"Coach, Pat Johnson, Sullivan Daily Record, I noticed in the overtime that Odom seemed to be laboring some and perspiring profusely. Any comment on that."

My sense is that Phil Jackson would like nothing more than to say, "Tell me you are kidding me with these questions. Kobe and Gasol are teammates they play together as teammates should. What was going on in the first quarter is that the ball was not going in the basket. Yes, Odom was perspiring, we were in an overtime game and he had played many minutes during it."

The questions reflect the relatively high level of interest in basketball and sports in general. Somehow I believe that tomorrow after the kindergartners are dismissed from grade schools throughout the country, no elementary school principal will be asked: "Dr. Harris, tell me. Missy and Davey seemed to work well today during the hokey pokey dance number. You have a comment on that?"