Someday, Phil Jackson is going have a trophy named after him.

Check that—he’ll have trophies named after him.

The man coached nine NBA champions in his first sixteen seasons. His career winning percentage is a sublime .700. He has never—nevah, evah—missed the playoffs. If his Lakers manage to top the Celtics in this year’s NBA Finals, he will surpass Red Auerbach for the most titles won as a coach.

Does that mean he also surpasses Red as the greatest coach in NBA history?

From this end, at least, the answer is definitely… maybe.

The track records of these two titans of the NBA are eerily similar. Jackson was and still is a winner of nearly unparalleled quality, as is Auerbach. Both men crafted their respective offenses around tools of the trade borrowed from the college game; Jackson implemented Tex Winter’s triangle offense that was pioneered at Kansas State, whereas Auerbach advanced the philosophy of fast break basketball that was the norm at the University of Rhode Island under Coach Frank Keaney. Both men are legendary for their frequent exploitation of the mind, although Jackson’s subdued “Zen Master” is decidedly less fiery than Auerbach’s “Bobby Cox” before there was “Bobby Cox.”

The most tangible differences between Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach are the teams they coached and how those teams were assembled. Jackson inherited Michael Jordan as he inherited Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Auerbach, on the other hand, sought to acquire the talent that fit his tastes. Although Bob Cousy fell in his lap thanks to a circus of off-season events that saw the star point guard bounce from team to team, he had his sights set on a slew of future Hall of Famers in the years to come. First came Bill Sharman, who was acquired in 1951 to pair with Cousy. Although the backcourt duo would become all things prolific, the team lacked interior presence. To address those needs, Auerbach sought out some so-so dude from San Francisco named Bill and forward Tommy Heinson in the 1956 draft. K.C. Jones rounded out that particular draft for the Celtics, which could only be described as absurd (I mean, really—Boston picked up three future Hall of Fame players in that draft). Then came Sam Jones and John Havlicek in subsequent seasons, two legends who made Boston more indomitable than they already were. In all, Red Auerbach coached nine Hall of Famers in his time with the Celtics. Seven of them were spotted by Auerbach’s genius in the NBA Draft.

This is not to say Auerbach’s methods were any more effective than Jackson’s—the numbers can attest to that. Although Bill Russell was the definitive superstar of the Auerbach era, Bill Russell was an entirely different animal from Michael Jordan. Russell was the anchor and catalyst for a team loaded with talent; Jordan could affect the game in ways Russell could not, in part because Jordan’s talent was eminently unique and also because Jordan’s role for the Bulls was altogether different than Russell’s was with the Celtics. Jackson wisely sought to use that to his advantage by allowing the offense to run through Jordan, thus allowing M.J. to develop his reputation for making those around him leaps and bounds more effective on the court. Because of this, the Bulls never needed to constantly bring in top-tier talent to remain above the league. Jordan’s Batman, Scottie Pippen’s Robin, Horace Grant’s (and in later years, Toni Kukoc’s) Lieutenant Gordon, and the remainder of Gotham’s elite was good enough to deliver six titles in Jordan’s last six full seasons he spent in Chicago.

But there’s also something to be said for Jackson’s success away from the Windy City. It’s not entirely true that Bryant and O’Neal could have won with just anyone at the helm; after all, Los Angeles were regular season thoroughbreds in O’Neal’s first three seasons as a Laker, but it wasn’t until Jackson took over at the dawn of the 1999-2000 season that the Lakers saw their success through to the NBA Finals. It’s no coincidence that the Lakers immediately “three-peated” when the Zen Master took over. It’s also no fluke that Los Angeles has managed to navigate its way to the top of the West without Shaq. Phil Jackson knows how to coach a superstar. And for anyone that knows basketball, that’s not the remark of a cynic, but a very high compliment.

 Jackson and Auerbach: different men in different eras with different teams. It may not quite be a comparison between an apple and an orange, but if that is the case, it’s safe to say that the apple and the orange are the best of their kind.