One is in his first year as an NBA head coach, the other his second. One seems too young for the job, the other too intellectual.
What are these guys doing here?They don't storm up and down the sidelines. They handle a player's mistake with an explanation, not an expletive. They are confident and patient and good teachers.
That, along with talented players, is why Chicago's Phil Jackson and Los Angeles' Mike Dunleavy are here. They have brought their teams, difficult step by difficult step, to the NBA Finals.
"He's going to be a real special coach in this league," Lakers guard Byron Scott said of Dunleavy. "He never just threw a bunch of stuff at us. Every week, he'd give us maybe two or three new things and we'd work on them."
"Phil's not going to put any undue pressure on you," Bulls center Bill Cartwright said, "outside of making you understand what the team needs from you and what he expects from you."
They are the Mutt and Jeff of NBA coaches - the lanky and mustachioed Jackson, the short and balding Dunleavy - and unlikely competitors for the championship.
Dunleavy was just 36 when he became coach of the Lakers last June 11 after Pat Riley resigned. He took over the league's winningest franchise in the 1980s without a single day's experience as an NBA head coach and three years as an assistant with Milwaukee.
Jackson, 45, had more experience as a head coach in the Continental Basketball Association for five years and an assistant with New Jersey for three and Chicago for two. Bulls vice president Jerry Krause is surprised Jackson turned to coaching at all.
"I've known Phil since he was in college in North Dakota," Krause said. "I thought some day he'd wind up being the governor of North Dakota or senator from North Dakota. When he started coaching, I was
shocked."
Both coaches inherited problematic situations.
Under Riley, the Lakers had won four titles in nine years and had the best regular-season record last season.
"It was a no-win situation," Dunleavy said. "If we win, we're supposed to win. . . . I knew that pressure would be there."
He also had to assert himself on a veteran team led by a dominant personality, Magic Johnson, and sell the players on slowing down their fastbreak style.
It could have been an intimidating prospect.
"I don't look at things that way," Dunleavy said. "I
study things hard. I work hard. I make my own decisions. I live with those decisions."
He contacted the players in the off-season to establish a relationship and hear their concerns.
"He's got a lot of confidence in his ability as a coach and as a person," Lakers assistant general manager Mitch Kupchak said. "So that really wasn't a problem.'
Scott said Dunleavy's willingness to seek input from his players is a refreshing change from Riley. The new boss, a strong shooter during his 11-year NBA playing career, occasionally engages his players in a game of H-O-R-S-E.
Now, the Lakers are in the finals.
Jackson took over a team that hadn't been as successful as the Lakers. He also had to convince his superstar, Michael Jordan, to have faith in his teammates and get them more involved in the offense.
It was a challenge that could have crushed a coach with lesser wisdom than Jackson, who majored in philosophy, psychology and religion at the University of North Dakota.
"He's an extremely bright man and has a great capacity for absorbing people's thoughts," Krause said. "There are a lot of people I know who can't use their brains. Phil can use his brains in everyday interaction with people."
"Phil is a teacher. He didn't scream. He didn't yell" after the Bulls lost the opener of the finals, forward Horace Grant said. "He makes everything fun."
"It's important to keep a level head," Jackson said.
Now, the Bulls are in the Finals.