The Last Season

More than anything else, Jackson's The Last Season leaves you with a very unflattering picture of Kobe Bryant. Kobe comes across as very immature and self-centered. While it might be easy to discount Jackson's portrayal, the picture he paints is very consistent with an excellent Newsweek story published in October of 2003. On the other hand, I came away from the book feeling more sympathetic towards Shaq. Jackson paints Shaq as much more forthright and honest. The book also provides a glimpse of how much Kobe and Shaq have grown to dislike each other.

There were a couple of sections of the book that I found interesting. Talking about winning, Jackson relayed a saying from one of his assistant coaches:

You are only a success at the moment that you do a successful act. You can't be a success the next moment because you have already moved on to do something else. [page 112]