Reminder From Phil Jackson: Guns Are Bad

It pretty much goes without saying that NBA coaches, general managers, and league executives would prefer that their players didn't roll around town packing heat. It's not a like a reminder was needed of the fact that guns and athletes don't usually mix. But the league got one over the weekend anyway, when Plaxico Burress, of the reigning NFL champion New York Giantssupposedly shot himself in the leg with an unlicensed weapon this past Friday.

In light of the incident, Phil Jackson was asked if he ever spoke to his players about gun safety, and he said that while he's personally against handguns, it's something he lets the league take care of on its own.

"There’s a pretty strong argument in the NBA about carrying guns, a strong anti-gun policy,” Jackson said. “It’s really hard to regulate because it’s part of the Constitution. It’s part of what we are in this country. I’m personally against handguns, (and) I think this is something that in itself draws its own problems.”

“I haven’t talked about it in the last couple of years,” he said. “The NBA has stepped up and talked about it. Their (security) department has talked about it with the players. They certainly got a lesson this weekend that ought to make them alert.”

Honestly, Phil doesn't have anything to worry about, at least the way this current Lakers roster is constructed. When you look around the team's locker room, you see a group of mature, multi-lingual professionals that seem more interested in fashion and the night's dinner arrangements than they do in bringing a handgun into a nightclub. And even if they were into the whole gun thing, it's doubtful that a talking-to from an older gentleman like their head coach would do much good at that point anyway.

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