The controversy surrounding the book concerns Jackson's characterization of Bryant and treatment of the breakup. In
The Last Season Jackson suggests Bryant's influence on the dissolution and labels him "uncoachable". According to Jackson, in Bryant's exit interview with him he stated that O'Neal's fate with the Lakers would affect his decision to return, saying "I'm tired of being a sidekick." Later in a phone call with Lakers owner
Jerry Buss, Jackson recounts Buss's explanation of the team's preference for Bryant rather than O'Neal, of which Jackson disapproved: "It's not that I'm enamored with Kobe's character. But he is twenty-six in August. The seven years ahead are the prime years of his career....I have to serve the people who are loyal to me. My mail runs about 5-1 on Kobe to Shaq." Jackson makes his own departure sound like a mutual decision with Laker management, saying he was "at peace" with the outcome, but he recorded Buss's remark: "We're going in a different direction." But Jackson's thoughts on Bryant caused the most stir.
While calling coaching O'Neal "an experience I will cherish forever," his inflammatory comment on Bryant continued to draw attention when Jackson returned for a second coaching stint with the Lakers on June 15, 2005.