Jackson, 71, is an 11-time NBA Champion coach between the Chicago Bulls (six) and the Los Angeles Lakers (five). Auerbach won nine as coach of the Boston Celtics. The similarities between the two is razor thin. Jackson won with Michael, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant. Auerbach won with Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, and Sam Jones.
After winning the 2011 NBA Championship Jackson left the Lakers. There were abundant rumors about his lack of relationship with Laker owners Jerry and Jim Buss, and the firing of Mike Brown as his successor. In 2014, Jackson returned to the NBA, but this time in a front office position. The “Zen Master” traded the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, for the east coast, in becoming president of the New York Knicks.
Much like President Trump, Jackson decided to clean house and ruffle feathers in his first week in office. Jackson fired head coach Mike Woodson, and his entire staff. The Knicks had just finished a 37-45 season, and narrowly missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Woodson’s replacement was Derek Fisher, who was a player on five of Jackson’s six championships in Los Angeles.
All Jackson managed to do was put the pieces in place for the Knicks to have their worst season in the 69-year history, finishing a paltry 17-65. The two biggest highlights were a franchise-record 16-game losing streak, and trading guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert as part of a three-team deal to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shumpert and Smith won a championship with the Cavaliers last season. (Have I mentioned here before that the Golden State Warriors blew a 3-games-to-1 lead in the NBA Finals, and allowed Cleveland to break a 52-year championship drought in the process?)
Fisher lasted less than two years, and Jackson fired him just before the All-Star break last season. Kurt Rambis took over, and the Knicks finished 32-50. The good news is the Knicks finished third in the Atlantic Division. The bad news is only Toronto and Boston made the playoffs, and the other three teams finished in the bottom three of the Eastern Conference. The lone bright spot was the emergence of rookie forward Kristaps Porzingis from Latvia. The fourth overall selection in the 2015 NBA Draft, Porzingis averaged 14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game, appearing in 72 games.
Rather than removing the interim tag on Rambis, Jackson went out and signed Jeff Hornacek to coach New York for this season. So the Knicks now had a new coach, a talented young cornerstone in the frontcourt, and Carmelo Anthony.
We’ll touch on the last of those in a moment.
Jackson was able to deal with the Bulls to get former league MVP Derrick Rose, and later signed 2014 Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah away from the Bulls. If this was Rose and Noah of three years ago, the Knicks could have snoozed their way to a minimum of 45 wins, and a first-round playoff victory. However, both players are on the back ends of their career, and have not played a full season in some time. WWE wrestler John Cena hit the nail on the head during his opening monologue of the 2016 ESPN ESPY awards, when he said:
“Does anyone else think it’s weird that Phil Jackson is reassembling the Bulls in New York...but not the good Bulls?”
So here the Knicks sit at 21-28, third in the Atlantic, and 3.5 games out of the final playoff spot in the East. Their reward for grabbing that last spot would be either Boston, Toronto, or the same Cavaliers Jackson is trying to emulate with their “Big Three.” The difference is LeBron James is the greatest player on the planet, and Kyrie Irving is the most clutch shooter in the game right now. Derrick Rose can barely jump, and Carmelo kills locker rooms.
What if the rolls were reversed in 2004, and Denver had the top overall pick, instead of Cleveland. Would Anthony have brought the Cavaliers a championship faster than James? The answer is an unabided “no,” as he would have played out his three years, and left town. Anthony grew up in Brooklyn, and could not get a trade out of Denver to New York fast enough.
Earlier this week, the rumor mill began to crank back up, with talk of a Kevin Love for Anthony trade between the Cavs and Knicks. James wants another playmaker, so the Cavs have a chance to match Golden State’s “Big Four.” Love has been battling a back injury for most of the past two months, and would be more attractive to Knick fans than a player who has been good, but certainly not the legend most thought he would be coming out of Syracuse.
Jackson went from coaching under shrewd owners in the Buss’, to the most clueless owner in the NBA while working for James Dolan. The triangle offense does not work with the athleticism of today’s players, yet Jackson is trying to turn the clock back a decade, when his system dominated the league. If Jackson has any fantasy about bringing in Love, Dolan better dump a bucket of cold water on him in his sleep, because Cavalier owner Dan Gilbert will laugh directly in his face.
James is more likely to spit in Jackson’s face, after Jackson referred to James’ business associates as a “posse” just before Thanksgiving. The backstory is that James flew to New York to take in a Knicks game, and went up to a luxury suite to visit Jackson at halftime. James alleges that Jackson did not speak to him the entire time.
Jackson may be trying to deflect the attention away from the lackluster on-court performance by his team. However, the crotchety attitude is more zero than zen.
I don’t know what’s better for the NBA...when the Knicks are in the playoffs, or they are a laughing stock. The latter is pretty damn entertaining, though.
-JC24