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Jackson: Despite criticism, Bryant was best option vs. Memphis

Phil Jackson has coached two of the game's great scorers in the past two decades, Kobe Bryant with the Lakers and Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls. In addition to scoring loads of points and winning multiple titles, they had something else in common:

There was plenty of second-guessing about their high volume of shots.

There's been some serious public debate about the number of shots Bryant took in the Lakers' loss Monday to the Memphis Grizzlies. It was a conversation sparked by Pau Gasol's contention that he and fellow 7-footer Andrew Bynum were shortchanged.

Bryant shot 16 of 28 against the Grizzlies, Gasol was 4 for 7 and Bynum was 1 for 3. Afterwards, Gasol said the Lakers are a better team when he and Bynum get more shots than they took during a 95-93 loss to the Grizzlies.

Jackson addressed the situation for a third consecutive day Wednesday.

"One of the criteria for Michael was to shoot 50 percent," he said when asked about whether Jordan faced similar criticism   Read Full Article...