SOLVED!
[The New Yorker] BG Note: The subject of this blind item may be a New Yorker Festival participant.
Which sports figure instituted “silence days,” on which no one was allowed to talk during practice?
Sports Figure:
Sport/Team:
SOLVED!
Sports Figure: Phil Jackson
Sport/Team: Basketball/ New York Knicks
Source: The New Yorker
Phil Jackson is a practicing Buddhist. He applies many of the valuable lessons learned through meditation and Zen Buddhism to managing his basketball team. In an interview with Oprah a few years back, Jackson said, “As much as we pump iron and we run to build our strength up, we need to build our mental strength up so we can focus so we can be in concert with one another.”
Those kinds of skills were especially helpful to Jackson when he needed to manage rule-breaking players like Dennis Rodman when they both worked for the Chicago Bulls.
It must have taken a lot of zen to manage Dennis Rodman!
This is Phil Jackson’s first season as the head honcho of the Knicks (he was a player for the team from 1967-1978). The team is off to a rough start so far (2-6). Jackson’s going to need all the zen he can get to get to teach those guys that triangle offense.
Congratulations to KookyWooky, who was first with the correct answer!