Phil Jackson on Women in NBA: No Way

The Zen Master vehemently disagrees with David Stern’s prediction that a woman could play in the L within the next 10 years. And it all stems from a game that took place decades ago: “When Jackson ran a youth basketball camp in Montana early in his coaching career, he recalls pitting a state champion high school girls team against a group of middle-school boys who had never played together. The outcome of the game was so one-sided in favor of the boys that it has stuck in Jackson’s mind ever since. ‘(The girls) were all four to six inches bigger than these boys, and they got beat by 40 points,’ Jackson said. ‘It was one of those things that opened my eyes to the differences. Even though the girls had skill and knowledge as a group and the boys hadn’t played together, they just trapped and pressed and did all kinds of things that changed the game … That’s not going to happen,’ he said. Without a doubt, women’s basketball has made great strides, but I can’t see it in 10 years. I think the boys are going to increase as much as the women do in those 10 years. That’s the way we’re evolving.'”