The Los Angeles Lakers were looked upon as the team to beat going into the 2003-04 season.

A team with four potential hall of fame players and one of the best coaches in the NBA could not fail in its task to win a championship.

They did, and now we can learn why.

Phil Jackson’s release of “The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul” gives the reader an insider perspective on what really goes on with a coach, a team and his players.

Jackson has received some heat for writing this book because some feel the locker room is sacred grounds in the sports world.

The Zen Master has done nothing wrong by publishing his journal entries that don’t paint a particularly good picture of young superstar Kobe Bryant.

This isn’t even the first time Jackson has written about the locker room in a book.In “Sacred Hoops,” Jackson calls Scottie Pippen a, “brooder” and explained what the locker room atmosphere was like after Pippen said, “I’m out” when he wasn’t picked by Jackson to take the final shot in a game three match-up with the New York Knicks.

He refused to go in the game for the final 1.8 seconds and instead of playing a valuable decoy, he sat on the bench and watched as Toni Kukoc sank the game winning shot.

He describes Bill Cartwright as being so full of emotion he could hardly breathe when in the showers and crying when talking to Pippen after the game.Later that night, Pippen apologized to his teammates and his coach.

That’s one of the main differences between the two books; Pippen had a good side, Horace Grant, who Jackson had some problems with, had a good side, where as it seems that Bryant lacks any endearing qualities.

This book reveals why Bryant, who was accused of rape, will never be the next Jordan.

Just because it doesn’t flatter the superstar is no reason to condemn the book.The book is an honest view of how Jackson saw the world during his last year with the Lakers.

It reveals the Lakers weren’t interested in quality, only marketability when they got rid of Shaquille O’Neal and Jackson.

This book tells me all the things I wondered but couldn’t find answers to, until now.

Bryant has said that he will not read the book, but perhaps he should, to see how others view him.