Phil Jackson re-joined the Los Angeles Lakers as their head coach on June 14, 2005, less than one year after he left the team to take a year off from coaching. Jackson, the NBA's career leader in playoff victories and playoff winning percentage, and as a coach in the 1980s and 1990s, Jackson turned a Chicago team built around the game's outstanding individual player, Michael Jordan, into a six-time NBA champion. Then he proved he could adapt to the presence of a dominating center, winning with the Lakers and Shaquille O'Neal. Deep inside, however, Jackson has remained remarkably consistent, self-possessed, focused and confident. These defining qualities have been put to best use in his role as coach. Firm but not severe, Jackson neither babies nor bullies his players. Instead he gives them the opportunity to learn for themselves how to succeed, and a structure in which they can win as a team. Jackson did something that many coaches have struggled to do, build a consistently winning team around a megastar.