Greatest?

After the Lakers won this year's NBA Championship, the accolades poured in for coach Phil Jackson. Now with 10 rings, he's being called the greatest NBA coach ever.

It's difficult to dispute, since the only measuring stick is the number of titles won. But I hesitate to jump on the bandwagon. As with great players, there have been many great coaches who won fewer or no championships. So many things have to go right: You need to have the right players, the right organization (top-to-bottom), and you need to get the right calls in the game.

You never know how things would have turned out for Michael Jordan without Scottie Pippen, for Kobe Bryant without Shaquille O'Neal or Pau Gasol, or for Jackson without any of those players, or without a GM or owner who could put together the right collection of players.

During the Lakers' series with Orlando, there were a couple of games that could easily have gone the other way. The Lakers escaped with a win in game 2 when Courtney Lee missed a potential game-winning lay-up. They escaped with a win in game four after Dwight Howard missed a couple of free-throws, any one of which would have iced the game for the Magic.

And nobody knows how things would have turned out if Boston's Kevin Garnett had not gone down with an injury and missed the playoffs.

Phil Jackson had no control over any of those things. He may simply be the most fortunate NBA coach ever.