Phil Jackson likes LeBron James

There was a time last spring when we entertained dreams that Phil Jackson may come to coach the Cavaliers.

We had no blog or public outlet to voice our thoughts on the matter at the time. If we had, you’d probably go back and be able to read about how this was going to guarantee a championship right away and see a bunch of Photoshops utilizing bananas or beets.

Others at the time (Laker fans) speculated that Phil would never come to Cleveland, because he would clearly pick the opportunity to coach a solo Kobe over a solo LeBron.

Anyway, while the Lakers were in town yesterday, Jackson spoke a little on LBJ, specfically in response to all of Charles Barkley’s statements that the King has no killer instinct.

“A lot of times Charles talks through his hat in instances like that and just makes statements,” Jackson said. “LeBron’s one of the great players in the game right now.”

“LeBron has a penchant for making the pass and hitting the open guy, and certainly that’s part of his game and that’s a good part of his game,” Jackson said. “He’ll get better at [taking over late] as he gets older.”

There you have it – right from Phil Jackson’s mouth – penchant.

Clearly one of the strangest words in the English language, penchant is defined as

pen·chant
n.
A definite liking; a strong inclination. See Synonyms at predilection.

[French, from present participle of pencher, to incline, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *pendicre, from Latin pendre, to hang. See (s)pen- in Indo-European Roots.]

Interesting that Phil would use that word after reading the definition and root information, isn’t it? Okay, not really, but look at the word penchant.

Say it like “pen chant” and it becomes something else entirely. If our suspicions are correct, each and every one of you will now read “penchant” as “pen chant” for the rest of you lives.

And we can finally rest.