Phil Jackson Says Bill Russell Is Greatest Of All Time Not Michael Jordan Or Kobe Bryant

Phil Jackson spoke with the Time.com about his new book Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success and when asked who was the first player he'd pick to start a team from scratch, Jackson selected Bill Russell over Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

Jackson coached Michael Jordan to 6 NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls during their domination of the league in the 1990s, winning three consecutive titles twice, in 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1996,1997 and 1998.

The "Zen Master" Phil Jackson also coached Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal with the Lakers for 3 straight NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and then won 2 more titles with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol on the Lakers in 2009 and 2010.

Despite winning 11 titles coaching arguably the Greatest Player of All Time (GOAT) Michael Jordan and the newest member of the 30,000 point club, Kobe Bryant, he said the Boston Celtics, great, Bill Russell would be his pick.

Said Jackson:

"In my estimation, the guy that has to be there would be Bill Russell. He has won 11 championships as a player. I think that's really the idea of what excellence is, when you win championships."

Bill Russell won 11 titles in 13 years while a member of the Boston Celtics in the 1950s and 1960s.

After winning an NBA title in his rookie year, Russell was injured in his second season and his Celtics fell to Bob Petit's Hawks team.

The next season the Celtics, with coach Red Auerbach, won the title again and captured the next eight titles in a row, which is still an NBA record.

Auerbach retired after the eighth consecutive title and Russell became the Celtics' player coach.

That first season as player coach, in 1967, Russell and the Celtics finally lost to Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers team.

But Russell came back as player coach to lead the Celtics to two more NBA titles in 1968 and 1969.

In the final year of his career, Russell led an undermanned Celtics team to a title over a Los Angeles Lakers team featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, defeating the Lakers in game 7 in Los Angeles.

When Phil Jackson asked if he had to pick between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, Phil responded like a politician saying:

"I would flip a coin and whichever one came up heads or tails, I'd take that person. They were that good."

When readers were asked who they would pick, they choose Russell too, but it was close to Jordan. Here are the results of that poll, as of this writing:

So who would you take to star your team if you could have any player in NBA history: Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or someone else? We know we'd have Phil Jackson coach, that's for sure.