winning 40 before losing 20

[octothorp]

I've been googling trying to understand the context of this original quote. If anybody knows exactly when it was said, please share. As far as I can tell, the context of his original comment comes from February, 2008, when the Lakers entered the month at 28-16. Sometime during the course of the month (I can't find a direct quote) he said this, and they finished the month at 41-18. So, basically he said what he needed to say to give his team a specific goal to shoot for, and it worked. No point in looking at 40-and-20 as anything more than a motivational quote for a specific team at a specific time.

That said, I think we go 3-3 over our next 6.

[saints91]

I don't think it really matters. But throughout a long regular season, I think you have to compartmentalize the season to create milestones. I think Phil Jackson was commenting more on the teams achieving mediocre winning percentages such as .585 (48-34). The true contenders are the teams closer to 60 or more wins. I remember it coming up in the context of the Raptors season last year though.

As mentioned above; I wouldn't be surprised if it was a way to motivate one of his teams that had started off poorly though.