After an off-season where they acquired all-stars Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to join the likes of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, it’s an understatement to suggest that the Los Angeles Lakers expect big things in 2012-13. But after a 1-4 start to the season, head coach Mike Brown was handed his walking papers. In turn, Lakers fans immediately salivated at the idea that Phil Jackson would return to coach the team for a third time. However, the Lakers’ brass decided to go a different route.

Instead of hiring Jackson yet again, the Lakers hired Mike D’Antoni and while his resume may be respectable, it doesn’t quite compare to Jackson’s who before leading the purple-and-gold to five titles, guided the dynastic Chicago Bulls to six championships in eight years during the 1990’s. Over a 20-year coaching career, Phil Jackson has posted an inconceivable 1155-485 record (a .704 winning percentage) to go along with his record 11 NBA titles in addition to already being a Hall-of-Famer having been inducted in 2007.

In the defense of Mike D’Antoni, not even the greatest of coaches can compare to Phil Jackson. Of course, while his tenure with the Phoenix Suns put him on the coaching map so to speak, D’Antoni’s recent time on Broadway was a fairly disappointing one.

After five years in the desert where he amassed a 253-136 all while turning a mediocre Suns team into a title contender, hopes were high when D’Antoni took over for the Knicks in time for the 2008-09 season. Unfortunately for D’Antoni, it took three years to post a winning record as New York went 42-40 in 2010-11 and then in 2012 at the height of Linsanity, D’Antoni resigned 42 games into the season with an 18-24 record.

While there is a lot of familiarity with D’Antoni in Los Angeles, most notably from Steve Nash who played under the 2004-05 Coach of the Year in Phoenix in addition to Howard and Kobe who played under their new bench boss when he was an assistant with the US Olympic team, not everyone’s happy in La-La Land.

Although he was more than ecstatic when the team picked up Nash and Howard this summer, Lakers legend Magic Johnson wasn’t as gung ho about the new coach. In fact, he said the franchise made “two critical mistakes,” the first of which was hiring Mike Brown and the second, hiring D’Antoni.

This is what Magic Johnson had to say:

“I don’t feel Mike D’Antoni is the right coach for the Lakers. Especially when you have Phil Jackson sitting out there, who wanted to be the Laker coach. (Lakers’ owner) Jim Buss decided he didn’t want Phil Jackson, he wanted Mike D’Antoni. And that’s OK, but why didn’t you just say that? But the fans were cheering for Phil Jackson two nights in a row.”

While I can understand the dismay of so many in Los Angeles for not seeing the Lakers bring Phil Jackson back, isn’t it time to move on? You’d have to be hiding under a rock not to know what Phil Jackson has meant to this franchise as his accomplishments in the City of Angels speak volumes, but to me, the need to keep coming back to Jackson seems a tad unhealthy. To put it another way, the Lakers continuing desire to reach out to Jackson is akin to the grown child who, even as an adult, feels the need to keep returning to their parents’ place. If this were New York, I could easily refer to the Lakers/Jackson love affair as the real-life Ross and Rachel. Then again, the Lakers could be located in Dubai and I’d still refer to them as such. For the moment, it’s an adequate solution but for the long-term, how on Earth are the Lakers supposed to move forward?

With that said, I have no reservation in giving the Lakers the benefit of the doubt. After three-straight titles and a Finals appearance in addition, Phil Jackson resigned from the club following the 2003-04 season. After just one year away, Jackson returned to coach the Lakers in 2005-06 winning two more championships. The Lakers are by no means a team so desperate to win that they’re willing to turn back the clock fifteen or twenty years to regain that winning formula. When the Toronto Blue Jays brought back Cito Gaston and Paul Beeston some fifteen years after reaching their peak, it was a sad state of affairs as the Jays were merely just hoping everything would work out. With the Lakers, bringing back Phil Jackson isn’t a last-ditch resort to find some on-court success. The Lakers are the most decorated team this young century. Since the Chicago Bulls ended their glorious title run in 1998, the Lakers’ five titles are the most of any NBA team and, like with the Bulls in the nineties, the Lakers have Phil Jackson to thank for much of their success.

Kobe Bryant even expressed his pleasure with the D’Antoni hiring. Like most others, Kobe would have loved to have Jackson back in the fold but for someone who’s not afraid to be candid, Kobe’s stamp of approval is significant. The aforementioned Howard and Nash are already pleased with the hiring as is Ron Artest, err, Metta World Peace (I still refuse to accept that that is his real name — seriously, what was he thinking?)

While he`s still recovering from surgery, the Mike D’Antoni era has yet to begin on the bench but, like it or not, the new coach will have to deal with a plethora of criticism for the rest of the season not so much because he’s Mike D’Antoni but because he’s not Phil Jackson.

It may be painful for any Lakers fan to deal with, but the sooner they rid themselves of Phil Jackson, the better. There is no doubt what an incredible coach he has been, especially with the Lakers, but enough is enough. In terms of the Lakers/Jackson relationship, it’s time for the training wheels to come off.

Accoring to Vanessa Huxtable, her boyfriend Robert told her that a ship that sails backwards never sees the sunrise. Now, while Robert was a 13-year-old boy too insightful for his own good and unwilling to practise what he preached in addition to not even knowing what he meant by said statement, the sentiment is, nonetheless, correct. In life, you must always go forward and although the Lakers are tempted to welcome Phil Jackson back with open arms (and a part of me can’t blame them), the only healthy option is to turn the page on the future. Will D’Antoni last with the Lakers? I don’t know. What I do know is that the Lakers are moving on and that alone is enough – for now, at least.

I sincerely do hope that Mike D’Antoni’s tenure with the Lakers is a successful one. While he deserves nothing but success, I hope for D’Antoni to thrive in Los Angeles only because I do not want to deal with another chapter in the tiresome saga that is Phil Jackson possibly returning to the Lakers. Enough already.

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Ryan Cowley is a writer at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter @RyanACowley.

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