Picture this: You're about to play Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The entire world is watching. Your heart is pounding. And your coach tells you to sit in complete darkness, shut up, and focus on your breathing for ten minutes. No pep talk. No screaming. Just vibes and silence.
That was Phil Jackson's Lakers. And honestly? It worked better than any motivational speech ever could.
Before every major game, Phil Jackson would gather the Lakers in the film room at their El Segundo practice facility. He'd say a few words, then do something that would make most coaches lose their minds: he'd turn off all the lights and tell everyone to sit in complete darkness for five to ten minutes.
No talking. No chanting. No hype music. Just twenty grown men sitting in pitch-black silence, focusing on nothing but the sound of their own breathing. Then they'd watch film and go play basketball like it was the most normal thing in the world.
According to assistant coach Jim Cleamons, who spoke to ESPN in 2010, it was mandatory to be in the room, but nobody was checking if you were actually meditating. "They could very well be asleep," Cleamons admitted. But for some Lakers, this meditation practice became absolutely crucial to their success.
Derek Fisher said he got a lot out of it. Lamar Odom would recreate aspects of it in his mind when he walked to the free throw line. Pau Gasol was enthusiastic about the whole thing. During timeouts, instead of drawing up plays and yelling instructions, Jackson would sometimes just tell the team to sit together on the sideline and "share a breath."
Shaquille O'Neal, being Shaq, had a slightly different take on the whole meditation situation.
Phil Jackson would burn sage during these sessions to "cleanse the energy" or whatever spiritual reasoning he had. The problem? Sage is literally called "the cousin of cannabis" for a reason. It smells exactly like marijuana.
In a 2016 interview with GQ, Shaq recalled his first reaction: "It smelled just like weed. I said coach, 'Is this weed?' He said 'no, it's sage, it's the cousin of cannabis.'"
Imagine being a 7-foot-1, 325-pound NBA superstar sitting in a dark room while your coach burns what smells like weed and tells you to "go to your happy place." Shaq later told CNBC that the meditations "weren't really his cup of tea at the time." Which is probably the most polite way Shaq has ever said something was weird as hell.
But here's the thing: Phil Jackson would tell them to close their eyes and visualize being in the championship parade, or being down by two points and overcoming their fears. And it actually worked. During Jackson's five seasons coaching Shaq, they won three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002.
Most coaches before a big game are screaming, throwing chairs, getting their players hyped up like they're about to storm a battlefield. Phil Jackson did the exact opposite. He'd often refuse to even call a timeout, just sitting there watching the game unfold while drawing one of the largest coaching paychecks in NBA history.
Assistant coach Jim Cleamons explained the philosophy to ESPN: "That psyched up stuff doesn't work. If you get psyched up, at some point in time you get psyched down. The purpose is to give yourself an opportunity to get your best performance. It's not about winning. There's a difference. You want your best performance. And if you provide your best performance, chances are you will win. But in order to have your best performance, you have to be relaxed."
Chuck Person, another Lakers assistant coach, never meditated a day in his life before working for Phil Jackson. Now he meditates every single day. He described the pre-game sessions to ESPN: "Before the lights are turned off, there are a thousand things going through your mind. A thousand thoughts, personal, basketball-wise, or anything else. You start to focus on that breath, everything goes away. You're in complete darkness. It's just you and that breath. And when the lights come on you feel relaxed, you feel rejuvenated."
Person also called it "very sexy" that you'd have "a bunch of 250-pound athletes, strong and lean" sitting together for five minutes meditating with one another. Which is definitely one way to describe it.
Phil Jackson won eleven NBA championships as a head coach. Eleven. That's more than any other coach in NBA history. He won six with the Chicago Bulls using the same meditation techniques, and five with the Lakers.
The Lakers coaching staff was so committed to this approach that when asked if they'd ever skip a meditation session, Chuck Person looked startled and said, "Oh, we're not going to skip it."
Even during games, when things got chaotic and the pressure was mounting, Lakers players would consciously take a breath or two to get centered. It became part of their identity. While other teams were panicking and calling timeouts, the Lakers were literally just breathing and staying calm.
Shaq might have thought it was weird at first, but he later admitted that Phil Jackson's calm approach taught the team never to panic. "If the General doesn't panic, the troops don't panic," Shaq said in a later interview.
The craziest thing about Phil Jackson's meditation approach is that it's basically what every sports psychologist and performance coach teaches now. Mindfulness. Breathing exercises. Visualization. Staying present in the moment instead of getting caught up in pressure and expectations.
Phil Jackson was doing this in 1999 when everyone thought he was absolutely insane for making millionaire athletes sit in the dark and smell sage. Now it's considered cutting-edge sports science.
So yeah, Shaq thought it was weird as hell. Most people did. But when you win eleven championships using a method that involves sitting in silence and focusing on your breath, maybe the weird approach is actually the genius approach.
The Lakers would sit in that dark film room, breathing together in silence, while Phil Jackson burned sage that smelled suspiciously like weed. Then they'd go out and absolutely dominate the NBA. Sometimes the weirdest strategies are the ones that work the best.
