The Chicago Bulls have reached out to Phil Jackson through back channels to gauge his interest in returning to the franchise he won six NBA titles with, two sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard.

There has been no direct contact between Bulls officials and Jackson, Broussard reports, but sources close to both parties have spoken and come away with the belief that Jackson would be open to a potential reunion in Chicago next season.

Bulls general manager Gar Forman refused to comment on the club's coaching search when reached Monday night by telephone.

And Chicago is not the only team that has registered interest in a coaching reunion with Jackson in conjunction with a planned free-agent pursuit of LeBron James. NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein on Tuesday that the New Jersey Nets have made similar back-channel inquiries about their chances of luring Jackson away from the Los Angeles Lakers.

After 11 seasons and two championships as a player with the New York Knicks, Jackson's first coaching experience came with the Nets during the final two seasons of his active career in 1978-79 and 1979-80, when he served as a player-assistant under Kevin Loughery.

Nets president Rod Thorn denied any form of contact with Jackson in an interview Tuesday afternoon with AOL Fanhouse, while Lakers spokesman John Black told the Los Angeles Times that the team is not aware of Jackson being contacted for any coaching vacancy.

"Not to my understanding," Black told the newspaper. "Obviously, if they were to contact him, it would be tampering."

Said Thorn to Fanhouse: "It's not true. We've never approached him. We haven't made any backdoor dealings or whatever it was called.''

Asked if the Nets would pursue Jackson should he leave Los Angeles at season's end to become a coaching free agent, Thorn said: "I anticipate he's going to stay with the Lakers. He's got a great situation there."

Earlier Tuesday, ESPN.com reported that the Nets privately acknowledge the long-shot nature of tempting Jackson away from L.A., given the 64-year-old's recent insistence that he's "90 percent" certain he'll coach the Lakers if he coaches anywhere next season. Yet sources with knowledge of New Jersey's thinking have maintained for weeks that new owner Mikhail Prokhorov is determined to make the splashiest hire he can to enhance the Nets as part of the quest to sign marquee free agents such as James.