lifer

リーグ優勝11回を誇るNBAきっての名将フィル・ジャクソン氏がニューヨークニックスのフロントに入ることが正式に決定し，その手腕に注目が集まっています。
liferは「終身懲役者」（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』小学館）という意味ですが，ここでは「（あるものに）その生涯を捧げた者」くらいの意味でしょうか。自分もEnglish liferにならなくてはと思いました。（Koyamamoto）

Jackson to make return to Big Apple
NEW YORK (AP)—Phil Jackson won NBA titles as a player and a coach. He’ll now try winning as an executive.
And this quest will take him back to where his career began.
Jackson has agreed to run the New York Knicks’ front office and will be formally introduced by the team at a news conference at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday morning, a person familiar with the negotiations between the 11-time champion coach and the franchise said Friday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Knicks would only confirm that a “major announcement” involving team executives was scheduled. Jackson also did not make any immediate public comment, but the move had been expected for several days—and was practically confirmed earlier this week by Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, who said he had heard the Hall of Fame coach was “coming on board.”
Jackson had been courted by clubs before, and fans in Los Angeles clamored for him to return to coaching not long after he left the Lakers after the 2010-11 season. He’s largely shunned limelight during this three-year break from work, during which he did things such as working on his health—arthritis pain hampered him toward the end of his coaching career—and released a book chronicling his basketball life.
Denver coach Brian Shaw, who played for Jackson and has been an assistant under him as well, said Friday that he would not be surprised to see one of his mentors take on the challenge of rebuilding the Knicks.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001124848
“I think he’s a basketball lifer, a basketball junkie,” Shaw said in Miami, where the Nuggets were playing the Heat.