NBA notebook: Phil Jackson leaning toward retirement

The Los Angeles Lakers are all hoping he will change his mind in the next week.

The 11-time NBA champion coach said Wednesday he is leaning toward retirement. After a full season of speculation on his health and future, Jackson will wait for the results of another battery of medical tests before informing Lakers owner Jerry Buss of his final decision late next week.

The 64-year-old Jackson is the most successful coach in league history by almost any measure, with a .705 regular-season winning percentage, a record 225 postseason victories and two more titles than Boston's Red Auerbach. His Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA finals last week to claim their second straight title, and Jackson sounds increasingly interested in going out on top.

"Some of it's about health," Jackson said. "Some of it is just the way I feel right now. I've had vacillating feelings about it. It's hard not to feel like coming back when you ... have an opportunity to coach a team that's this good, but it's what I feel like right now."

Jackson will drive to his offseason home in Montana this weekend. He didn't attend the Lakers' victory parade through downtown Los Angeles on Monday, instead undergoing tests on a body with two replaced hips, a sore knee requiring a brace under his suit during the season, and a previous heart problem. These accumulated woes and the NBA's onerous travel schedule have prompted retirement thoughts for several years.

After a second day of exit interviews at their training complex, the Lakers uniformly said they want Jackson with them next season, with Kobe Bryant claiming the club would be "drastically different" without Jackson's steady, cerebral presence on the sideline. Yet Jackson mostly has kept the Lakers in the dark about his plans, with even general manager Mitch Kupchak saying he had "no idea" what Jackson's future holds.

HEAT TRADE COOK TO THUNDER: The Miami Heat wanted to clear more cap space for free agency. The Oklahoma City Thunder wanted a shooter to boost their 3-point corps.

What might be a win-win was struck Wednesday.

The Heat traded shooting guard Daequan Cook and the No. 18 selection in Thursday's draft to the Thunder, in exchange for the No. 32 pick. Cook was due to make about $2.2 million next season, and Miami no longer has the $1.2 million in a salary-cap hold for what was its first-round selection.

"With this move, we are continuing with what we set out to do the day we decided to re-build the team," Heat president Pat Riley said. "That is to put together the best team possible, and sometimes that process requires addition by subtraction. This is just one of many moves we have made to continue to build this team."

So in short, the Heat found more money to spend when free agency opens July 1.

"We are pleased to add Daequan Cook to the Thunder roster," Thunder general manager Sam Presti said. "He will add depth and shooting to our backcourt."