Byline: MARK SINGELAIS Staff writer
LOS ANGELES -- Before Phil Jackson ever coached M.J., he taught Frankie J.
Before Jackson worked in the state-of-the art Staples Center in Los Angeles, he shivered in the drafty Washington Avenue Armory.
And before he became the intellectual leader of the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls, Jackson tasted a title with the 1984 Albany Patroons, who reigned atop the Continental Basketball Association.
Jackson said he still harbors a special place in his heart for Frankie J. Sanders and that CBA title, an event that helped convince him that he made the right career choice.
``It was important for us, it was important for me,'' Jackson said last week. ``I was just in the process where I was concerned whether coaching was going to be something I was going to do or not do. Or if I was going to be any good at it.''
Those doubts have long since melted away. When the curtain fell on the Michael Jordan era in Chicago, Jackson had, in nine seasons with the Bulls, compiled the best regular-season (.738) and playoff (.730) winning percentages of any coach in NBA history.
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