It's hard to question Jackson's opinion on anything related to NBA basketball, as his 11 championship rings make a strong case that he's got all the answers. But by implying that Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni could somehow have averted disaster by removing Bryant from the game after he sustained a pair of minor injuries in the early going, Jackson makes a few foolish logical leaps.
First, he has the benefit of hindsight, which has a tendency to make it awfully easy to pass judgment on the decisions of others. It's a logical fallacy to assume that just because one incident preceded another, the first one caused the second.
Jackson is oversimplifying things.
Second, people with far more knowledge than Jackson have long been split on the issue of whether serious injuries are as predictable as the former Lakers coach seems to think. It's certainly possible that fatigue, heavy minutes and preexisting conditions might contribute to injuries like torn Achilles tendons or ACLs.
But the jury is still out, so it's a little ridiculous for Jackson to so boldly insinuate that what happened to Bryant was preventable.
As an aside, Jackson's reference to Derrick Rose's injury—a player he's never coached and a situation he knows even less about—hardly warrants discussion. Inviting comparison to Rose's torn ACL in last year's playoffs makes Jackson look about as medically knowledgeable as that other Dr. Phil.
We'll leave Rose's issue alone, though, and return to Bryant's.
For what it's worth, one expert vehemently rebuffed the notion that Bryant's injury was caused by anything more than random chance:
If we're talking about the intricacies of the triangle offense or what it's like to live like a recluse on...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
