"But the one thing I can say about Red Auerbach is he did it with one team and that team had to get older and older as you go down the books. Phil has done it with two teams and each time he got younger players to play for him. That is one big difference, but it's still going to be a record. Red just got out of coaching. He could have won more championships; he didn't want to coach anymore."

The other big difference is Auerbach's teams got crowned eight straight times.

"That'll never get broken," Jones underscored . . . off the backboard, naturally.

Of course, had Michael Jordan not wasted one season and 65 games lunging at minor league curve balls and lounging around right field waiting for an occasional fly ball, Jackson's Bulls would've almost certainly maintained their throne for eight straight seasons; had that third rail been alive, obviously His Airness would not have retired in '98.

Of course, had Auerbach not turned the Celtics' coaching duties over to Bill Russell for '67-68 and '68-69, Jackson still would be one short in the chase.

Of course, you could say Jackson is really the ultimate winner and not Russell. Sunday's 99-86 clincher gives him a dozen championship rings. Let's not forget the two Head & Shoulders has hoarded from his guarding-the-inbound-passer days as an awkwardly effective Knick .

Of course, I'm getting carried away; that's like saying Robert Horry's seven rings make him better than Magic Johnson.

As if Auerbach's munitions' factory didn't stay loaded (thanks to his managerial shrewdness), serial skeptics find irresistible the fact Jackson was handed Jordan on a silver platter in Chicago and was bequeathed Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles. In both situations, there's no doubt the resident eagles were primed to go sky-high, but the fact remains, did not take their teams anywhere truly worthwhile until the Zen Hen arrived.

Of Jackson's 10 championship seasons, the one that flat out bowled me over was '93-'94 . . . oh, that's right, the Bulls did not win that year. As mentioned, that was the year Jordan got away from it all - the meddling media regarding his gambling, Horace Grant's whining about not getting enough shots, Scottie Pippen's pussyfooting and Jackson's triangle offense. At the time, M.J. told me he was angry at being repressed for three quarters by Phil's system and then asked to win it when down 10-15.

In my mind, that full season sans Jordan solidified Jackson as an elite coach . . . aside from propelling Pippen to superstar status ('94 All-Star MVP) and allowing Toni Kukoc to bare his virtuoso portability.

The 55-27 Bulls finished two games behind the Hawks in the Central Division and met the Knicks , No. 2 in the East, in the second round of the playoffs, where they lost in seven games . . . but not before getting jobbed in Game 5 by one of the most controversial calls in league history.

In the closing split second, Hue Hollins - incongruously the same referee who officiated the previous year'sGame 5, and arguably opted to swallow his pea on the infamous Charles Smith mauled/jump ball possession - called a foul against Pippen that gave Hubert Davis two free throws, turning a 1-point lead into a 1-point loss.

After a blowout Bulls win in Game 6, the Knicks advanced and eventually lost in the Finals to the Rockets. This was the sole time the Knicks were able to beat the Bulls in the playoffs during this rivalry. An incomparable ending, I believed then and submit now, would've been Chicago taking success to the limit without Jordan when Jackson had legitimate comp, Pat Riley, vs. Stan Van Gundy, who should've quit while he was behind.

("No offense to Governor Sarah Palin, but Jackson coaches with the calm of a grandparent, Van Gundy coaches like a hockey father," jabs column contributor Sam Lefkowitz).

A '94 title would've forever silenced the crickets, many of whom, are still chirping about Jackson ringers, I suspect. Well, maybe only in Massachusetts. That's a vast improvement. Not that long ago Jackson was thoroughly disrespected by his boss; team president Jim Buss had convinced Daddy Dearest to dump Shaq, dump Phil, hire Rudy Tomjanovich and turn over sold the team's soul to Kobe.

Three seasons later, Jackson cleaned up Jim's mess, guiding the Lakers back to The Finals, where they lost in six to the Celtics.

Orchestrating the franchise's 15th title and keeping Kobe (who badly wanted to prove he could win a championship without Tex Winter) under some semblance of control, has won the Zen Hen the whole family's everlasting deference, not just Jeannie's.

This time Dr. Jerry Buss genuinely recognizes Jackson's important. In the wake of Kobe's craziness dating back to L.A.'s loss in The Finals to the Pistons - didn't need Shaq, didn't need Phil - and then publicly flogging the owner two summers ago and trying to force a trade, the one lesson Dr. Buss has learned is that Jackson IS THAT GOOD!