Any time an NBA team suffers a tough loss, you usually hear these words from a player:

"It's not like coach can go out there and play for us."

For the most part I've always agreed with that statement. But maybe I've been looking at it the wrong way. Perhaps it doesn't really matter much at all what a coach does other than inserting certain players in at certain times and hoping they play well.

I'm suggesting this because what we're faced with right now is Phil Jackson, arguably the greatest coach ever, down 3-1 to Doc Rivers, a man who admittedly is considered by fans and NBA experts to be at best a mediocre coach. This is like David taking down Goliath on steroids.

And the funny thing is it's not like Rivers has dramatically outcoached Phil in the Finals so far, so the 3-1 Boston lead is hard to quantify from a coaching perspective. In fact, I'd even argue that Rivers cost the Celtics a sweep by botching Game 3 on multiple levels.

But that's more or less irrelevant now. Both teams are talented, but not one significantly more so than the other. So how did the Celtics get up 3-1 with a coach that almost everyone would agree is inferior to Jackson? And no, I won't bring crooked refs into this.

In Jackson's case, the one knock on him is that he's always had ridiculously talented teams so he hasn't had to do much. People have long argued that Jordan was the real coach during Phil's days in Chicago. Personally, I've always seen Phil as the "Dance with the one who brought you" kind of coach. He rides or dies with his top talent and refuses to tinker with what he's got. That's not a knock on him at all. Simplicity is often the key to success. And that strategy obviously works out well when you have people such as MJ, Pippen, Shaq and Kobe on the squads you've coached. But when your players begin to fail you, you can suddenly start to look real bad real fast.

Meanwhile, the Celtics managed to survive Doc doing everything he could to knock Boston out early in the playoffs. There's no way Boston should have gone to 7 against both Atlanta and Cleveland. Let me make this clear. The reason the Celtics got past those two teams is because of the players, not Doc. The only thing Doc's coaching did in those two series was keep Atlanta and Cleveland around.

Basically, what we have now in the Finals is Phil sticking with his guns, which is what he's always done, but they're not working. Is that bad coaching that he's not tinkering? I certainly don't think so. I mean, who's he going to replace Kobe, Odom and Gasol with? No one.

On the flip side, do I think Doc has suddenly figured out how to get Boston to win on the road? Do I think he suddenly realizes that playing Leon Powe more would really help him out? Of course not, besides he only played Powe 9 minutes last night. The point is Doc's still a mediocre/bad coach. What's happened is the Celtics players have ultimately figured out how to win despite him.

In the end, neither Phil nor Doc have had much influence on this series. It's the top players who are deciding things. That may sound somewhat obvious, but in all honesty, it's telling that in a series where coaching was supposed to play such a huge roll, it's basically played no role at all.

And if that makes you reassess your opinion of Jackson and his stature in the game, so be it. It's certainly changed mine.