Phil Jackson Set To Return, Not With Magic

Former Lakers coach Phil Jackson was interested in the possibility of joining the Magic's front office for the past few days but bowed out late this afternoon, writes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel.  Magic CEO Alex Martins was formally presented on Wednesday with a scenario involving Jackson by Sam Vincent, who played for the Magic and Jackson.  Ultimately, however, the former coach will be re-joining the NBA with an unknown club in an unknown capacity.

"It drew some interest from Phil," Vincent said. "But in the end, Phil decided to go with another opportunity."

Vincent said that Jackson gave him the impression that he doesn't want to coach anymore, though the Magic scenario would have installed him in a front office capacity.  With Orlando, Jackson would have been either the team president/general manager or a consultant.

According to Vincent, Jackson was intrigued enough by the idea that he and another intermediary were planning to visit Jackson's home in Montana to speak with him.  If the talks went well, they would have next approached Dwight Howard.  The intermediary was a former All-Star player and Hall of Famer who would have been installed as the team's next coach and mentored by Jackson as he had no prior coaching experience.  Schmitz does not divulge the would-be coach's name as he is currently an employee of another team.

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