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On Thursday, Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson had a conference call with the media to discuss the upcoming NBA finals matchup between the Lakers and Pistons. Here are the questions and answers:

Phil Jackson Opening Statement: I think it’s quite obvious that both teams have come up through a disadvantage situation to reach the Finals, winning against teams with home-court advantage in the conference finals. Both teams are keyed and ready. They’ve gone through their playoffs with the success that it takes to go into the Finals, feeling like both teams have a great opportunity to win the championship. Obviously, the Pistons have made great changes during the course of the year. The addition of Rasheed Wallace, a very highly touted NBA player, who was much sought after during trade situations during the season, has changed the dynamic of their team and made them a little more streamlined, a little quicker, better outside shooting team in the process. We’ve had a good playoff run. We’ve had a lot of emotional game situations that have taken place. We look forward to the opportunity to play against the Pistons in a rematch of two teams that were in the Finals 14 years ago.

Q: Do you think Shaquille O’Neal’s free throw shooting will have a big impact on this series?

Phil Jackson: I think that Shaquille is always going to have a questionable free throw shooting situation. He’s going to be from one area to another. He started out the last playoffs series with a terrific game, probably our easiest win in the sequence of games against Minnesota was caused by the fact that he shot his free throws as well as he did. He’s always been able to make them in situations that are known as hack-a-shaq situations in which he’s purposely fouled. However, his free throw shooting remains a question, remains a situation where from game-to-game. We’re going to be very conscience of it and very aware of the fact that he has to come through in those situations. I don’t anticipate it’s going to be as low scoring of a series as the last one with Indiana and Detroit. I anticipate these games will be in the eighties and nineties.

Q: What is the most underrated aspect of Larry Brown’s coaching ability and does the fact that he hasn’t won a title get in the way of him getting the respect he deserves?

Phil Jackson: I think the most underrated thing is that it appears that Larry likes to move a lot. That’s the one thing that people have often had a good time with, pointing out that he’s never going to stay longer than four or five years. He always has his eyes looking out for the next situation or the next opportunity and the grass is greener on the other side. I don’t think that Larry has ever not been highly respected. I think that’s a misnomer. He’s a guy that’s going in the Hall of Fame this last year. He has not won a championship, and there aren’t many coaches that have gone into the Hall of Fame without winning a championship. His service, his coaching ability, his influence on the game, all those things have contributed to his high respect among basketball people.

Q: Can you talk about what winning this title would mean to you?

Phil Jackson: There’s a lot of emphasis on it and it becomes a reality simply because it’s imminent. It’s the next stop as far as whether success or failure happens in these playoffs. I think what I’d like to eliminate is any of the negativity that has flown between Red Auerbach and myself. People forget that we also had such great competition between the Celtics and the Knicks in the late ’60s and early ’70s, that there are still some residual feelings from those times and also the perception that my mentor coach Red Holzman had toward Red Auerbach. He was a guy that lit a cigar during the course of a ballgame when victory was sealed. There was nothing quite so obvious as far as an “in your face” activity as that. I think that he built up a lot of that, which I wasn’t a recipient of. Obviously, he was done coaching when I reached the NBA. He’d turned the team over to Bill Russell, who was a player/coach and assumed the general manager’s role. But (Red) still was very prominent as the front of that team and the force of the team and the philosophy of that team. Obviously, it’s not about Red, it’s not about myself, it’s about teams that have won and the opportunities I’ve had to be in this position with a staff that’s a terrific that has made this possible. We have a totally different game in this era than we had 35-40 years ago. A lot of coaches then wore many hats, as I did in the CBA, from driving the van to making the decisions on the personnel, whereas now our jobs are pretty much spread amongst a large staff. We have what seems like 15 people for each player. It still is a wonderful opportunity. I feel tremendously lucky and blessed because I’m here.

Q: If you win number 10, is there going to be a desire for you to do something else? Maybe running a team as a general manager?

Phil Jackson: I never have had that yen, to be a behind-the-scenes guy, a manipulator of players and the builder of a franchise so to speak. I don’t know what the future holds. I’m not worried about it or anticipating anything that could happen. I’m not presupposing retirement nor am I disputing that I may retire. The promise that we’ve made to each other and to this ballclub, between Jerry Buss and myself and the Lakers is that we’ll wait until the end of the season to discuss what is next in line for the Lakers. However, there’s a lot that will go down in this series that will color that decision to be made at that time.

Q: Can you talk about how Shaquille is playing going into these Finals compared to the first three titles and also where he fits among the most dominant players ever to play the game?

Phil Jackson: He definitely figures into every gameplan someone puts together to defend against the Lakers. How do you keep the ball from getting into a position where Shaquille can dominate in the lane. That part of his game carries that weight, makes teams either double or rotate, or creates a situation where defenses are compromised. That in itself is a major change to when we were playing against the Lakers in the late ’60s and early ’70s and when I was with the Knicks. There were three series over four years in which Wilt Chamberlain was the center and we couldn’t even double team. At that time you didn’t even talk of double-teaming. You talked about getting down and knocking the ball loose, but there was no such thing as a double-team. You were left alone to defend a guy of that size in those days. The advent of the new rules that have changed dramatically since that time can be attributed to the dominance of the big centers and particularly Shaq. His game has transformed a lot. He’s not as concerned about his scoring. In these five years that I’ve been with the ballclub, I think his attitude and his preference was to be looked at as a scorer. I think he’s comfortable now allowing some of the other guys to carry a lot of the load. He still likes to be a playmaker from the post, to make a team have to collapse around him and to make those decisions. He enjoys that part of his game. His dominance is now greater as a defensive player and a rebounder than it’s ever been in his career, which is a maturation on his part.

Q: Why do you feel that the scores in this series will be a little higher, and also will your decision at the end of the season have to do with what transpires in this series?

Phil Jackson: I think it’s going to be a lot about how things transpired during the season and how things transpire in July. There’s going to be free agency in early July, where a lot of things will happen that we’ll watch. As far as the scoring, I think both teams will have a little more open floor play. We have not played basketball against each other since November 18. That’s five and a half months ago; seems like another season ago. These teams are relatively unknown to each other, coupled with the fact that the Pistons have added Rasheed Wallace. We don’t anticipate low scoring games.

Q: What do you make of people criticizing you for having the opportunity to coach very talented teams?

Phil Jackson: I don’t know what that has to do with anything as far as basketball goes. It’s dealing with what you have to deal with in basketball. That’s great fortune. It’s opportunity. Fortunately for me, in this situation, the opportunities have worked out. I probably would have no capability of absorbing a 60-defeat season as a coach. It would be a foreign experience. My whole career, even as a player, has been on winning basketball clubs and it just seems to have been a part of the make-up of what’s been given me. That’s what I’ve been given and that’s what I’ve had to deal with. Some people can make fun of it or some people can have a good time with it, or some people can resent it. It’s just what it is.