"He asked me to start diagramming stuff in the locker room before the game" - Jackson explains how Red Holzman pushed him toward coaching

Given the 11 NBA Championships, Phil Jackson won as a coach, one would assume he was born to command the basketball sidelines.

He made winning titles look easy.

The "Zen Master" snagged those trophies in bunches, winning three three-peats and one back-to-back with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers.Interestingly, this wasn't how Jackson's legendary coaching career started.

He wasn't even interested in the X's and Os' of basketball at university.

The young Phil's passions and energies were devoted to other endeavors."It's not like coaching just dropped on me, but I never took phys ed classes in college.

I never had any inclination on it being like this.

I was in arts and literature," Jackson said, per the Los Angeles Times.A new chapterThough he didn't necessarily have an undying love for the sport, the New York Knicks noticed Jackson's inherent talent and physical abilities, and they selected him as their second-round, 17th-overall pick in the 1967 NBA Draft.

Though his offensive skills were subpar, his intelligence and ridiculously long arms made him a great defensive player.The Montana native would reveal another dimension of his basketball talents when he suffered an injury.

In one game, legendary Knicks coach Red Holzman's assistant was not present, so he asked Phil for assistance.

Lo and behold, Jackson's basketball IQ already apparent while on the court became more noticeable when he held the tactical board."I ended up on the injured reserve list, and [Knicks Coach] Red Holzman had no assistant.

I ended up being the guy in the locker room with him," Jackson said.

"As we started developing a relationship and he started seeing that I saw the game a certain way, he asked me to start diagramming stuff in the locker room before the game, plays that the other team would run," he continuedPhil followed this new thread in his career.

When he was traded to the New Jersey Nets in 1978, he became a player and an assistant coach.

This new experience opened his eyes to the impossibility of wearing two hats at the same time."It's a very hard experience to be both a player and assistant coach.

You're on both sides of the fence," Jackson said of his time with the Nets.

"You try and get [players] to do some things that they're learning, and then you've got responsibilities to the coaching staff."Related: "He's Mr.

Discipline, Mr.

Straight, Mr.

Conservative" - Dennis Rodman admits Gregg Popovich was "the big problem" in San AntonioLearnings from the masterSo Phil went to the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and Puerto Rico's National Superior Basketball (BSN) to hone his skills exclusively as a coach.

He guided the CBA's Albany Patroons to their first title in 1984 and was named the CBA Coach of the Year in 1985.He returned to the NBA in 1987 as an assistant to Doug Collins with the Bulls.

In 1989, he was promoted to head coach, and interestingly, it was also during this time that he met triangle offense master Tex Winter.He leveraged this offense to guide the team to six NBA titles in eight seasons.

Jackson also racked up five more titles with the Lakers.

Now, the former Knicks forward is regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Phil's known for his obsession with detail and his unorthodox coaching methods involving meditation exercises.

He's also credited with taming the wild Dennis Rodman.Spectators are confused about how "Zen Master" seemed to make coaching one of the easiest jobs out there.

The technique lies in simplifying the most complex things, from people to intricate plays.

Phil always harkened back to those days with the great Red Holzman, who opened his eyes to the coaching world."He had a great sense of humor," Jackson said.

"He always said that basketball isn't rocket science.

It's a pretty basic thing.

You stay in front of your man defensively, and on the offensive end, hit the open man.""But he had a lot of common sense about people.

I think that's more than anything else what I picked up on," he concluded.

Related: "That was a difficult time for Luc because it didn't end well" - Phil Jackson admits he feels terrible about how Luc Longley's career ended.

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