The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul is a book by the former American basketball coach Phil Jackson, originally published by the Penguin Press in 2004. The book deals with the ups and downs of the Los Angeles Lakers' 2003-04 season and offers Jackson's insight into the team's season that ended in a breakup but not a championship, despite boasting future Hall of Famers Shaquille O'Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton, and Kobe Bryant. Purpose In the prologue, Jackson says: "I didn't want this book to be about the small petty gossip that makes up a lot of the NBA world. We have plenty of reporters who fill that bill. I did want to develop a story about a season that was built around a team of stars—a couple of them past their prime and a couple who have all the problems that the modern sports world can bear," obvious references to Malone and Payton and O'Neal and Bryant, respectively. Jackson, also the co-author of Maverick (1975), Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior (1995), and More Than a Game (2001), goes on to say that he had kept journal entries in each of his seasons as an NBA head coach, and had encouragement to develop the season into a story. 2003–04 offseason, season, and playoffs The announcement of Bryant's Colorado sexual assault charges obscured the promise of the Lakers' recent offseason acquisitions of Payton and Malone. Regarding news of Bryant, Jackson wrote of his concern but also: "Kobe can be consumed with surprising anger, which he's displayed toward me and toward his teammates....He rebels against authority." Jackson and Laker management decided to loosen their reins on Bryant, who decided to play the season as normal, but with admittedly no patience for O'Neal's comments to the media. As in past seasons, the tensions between the angry Bryant and O'Neal grew, with intense media attention. Jackson, who suggests he has had a tenuous relationship with Bryant ever since a remark he made in a 2001 interview that Bryant "sabotaged" games in high school to win them at the end, states that the Lakers suspended talks over a contract extension after he shouted to General Manager Mitch Kupchak "I won't coach this team next year if [Bryant] is still here. He won't listen to anyone. I've had it with this kid." Bryant, after realizing the apparent finality of his