NBA

Phil Jackson, New York Knicks divorce a long time coming

Steve Popper
The Record
Phil Jackson looks on during a stop in play against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

When the trade deadline came and went in February with Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks unable or unwilling to pull the trigger on a deal it left them in an awkward spot. Still stuck with Carmelo Anthony, who was caught up in a bizarre struggle with Jackson, and getting no return for Derrick Rose, due to become a free agent, the Knicks ran out the string on another miserable season.

And shortly after the deadline, Jackson’s appointed chronicler, his former assistant coach during his Continental Basketball Association days, Charley Rosen, wrote a story and noted, “Starting on July 1, Phil Jackson will have his phone stuck to his ear and lots of under-the-cap money to spend.”

Speaking to an executive from an Eastern Conference team shortly after, the line was recounted to him and he laughed.

“You have to kill yourself just to get his phone number,” the executive said. “You have to get a favor from someone to get Phil’s cellphone. I have it. But it was hard to get.

“It’s unusual, very unusual. Obviously, Phil is the decision maker and as decision makers, we want to talk to him. Nothing against the guys below him, but when you want to discuss a deal you want to talk to him. And he just doesn’t. There are management guys around the league laughing.”

The laughter came to an end Wednesday morning as the Knicks and Jackson officially parted ways.

Garden Chairman James Dolan finally stepped into the quagmire Jackson had created and met with Jackson, who had two years and $24 million left on a deal thanks to an option the two sides picked up in April, and pushed him out. The feuds with Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis finally became too much.

After three seasons at the head of the franchise as team president, after all of the talk on that first day he was introduced of a different kind of culture and an open dialogue with the fans and media, Jackson remained a mystery. He’s not the Zen Master anymore, but more of a recluse – silent to the media for nearly a year at a time, emerging with odd comments and critiques that have isolated him not only from his counterparts on other teams, but from the stars of his own team.

The 71-year-old Jackson was at an impasse with Anthony. In Jackson’s first major move as team president, after boasting that the Knicks would move on with or without Anthony, he blinked and not only brought Anthony back with a five-year, $124.9 million deal, but provided a rare no-trade clause and a 15 percent trade kicker in the agreement. 

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Anthony, if he was staying, wanted assurance of it, having pushed to force his way to New York three years earlier in a trade. He wanted to be here, which didn’t seem like a problem with the franchise having struck out in efforts to land other stars. But as Jackson’s teams failed spectacularly, piling up an 80-166 record in his three seasons, he has publicly tried to push Anthony to waive the no-trade clause. Anthony has dug in, unwilling to help Jackson after feeling insulted.

Last week, Jackson said, “We’ve said it might be time for him to find an opportunity to go someplace else. He says he’d just as soon stay.”

Anthony’s wife, La La, speaking on The Wendy Williams Show on Tuesday about the trade rumors, said, "The most important thing with that is just to stay close to (their son) Kiyan. That's my priority, that's his priority. So wherever he ends up, of course we want him to be happy."

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ESPN reported that Anthony’s representatives had broached the possibility of a buyout with the Knicks which would allow him to then sign with another team – likely the Cleveland Cavaliers with his longtime friend LeBron James. But the Knicks are not anxious to pull the trigger on a move like that which would bring no return for Anthony, who despite his problems with Jackson, still was the leading scorer for the Knicks last season. 

And then there is the young franchise cornerstone, the one positive of Jackson’s tenure – Porzingis. After two years in which the 21-year-old Latvian has been subjected to three head coaches, a nearly completely revamped roster and shifting systems with the only consistency being the dysfunction that has plagued the organization he opted to make the decision – probably the wrong one – to skip out on his exit interview with Jackson.

If that was a mistake it was met with organizational malpractice. Rather than take the high road with their young star – and a player no one thinks isn’t trying to do things the right way – Jackson criticized him at his own end of season press conference, noted that he would consider trading anyone, Porzingis included, and to this day has not spoken with Porzingis in more than two months.

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“I think we know what we’re doing,” Jackson said on MSG Network last week when asked what message he had for the fans. “Although it’s not been apparent in our record the last couple of years. We’ve grown from within. We have young players that are on their move up. It takes time to rebuild with youth. ... I think they have confidence in the fact that we’re going to have good players, we’re going to have a good team and we’re going to be on the court competitive.”

If the fan base was skeptical, so too were Jackson’s counterparts around the league.

He entered the job with a shaky history, having burned bridges with opponents throughout his coaching career. With New York, even when other team officials around the league had been in contact with him they talk about a strange chemistry – almost social reluctance by Jackson to interact.

That made him reliant on amiable general manager Steve Mills, who now is expected to at least transition the team through the free agent process which begins July 1. But around the league that dynamic had only seemed to create confusion.

“We talk to Steve and he’s a nice guy,” said a Western Conference official. “But you know that’s not the guy calling the shots.”

With Jackson’s hesitance to interact with his counterparts, some of those executives wondered if there was a power struggle in the Knicks front office.

“The divide there, you don’t know if Steve is talking to him,” the Eastern Conference official said. “People perceive the Knicks as two different management groups. That’s it. From the outside looking in, this may not be fair. But that goes back to ownership not allowing Phil when he came in to clean house.”

Since he was unable to finalize a deal with Steve Kerr in the early days of his tenure, Jackson had the benefit of a hands-off approach by Dolan – a stance that Dolan had maintained, even when it involved Anthony, who Dolan took an active role in bringing to New York.

The chaos, along with stories like the one that surfaced on draft day when ESPN’s Jay Williams recounted a story from a top-15 prospect who said that Jackson was falling asleep during his team workout, had fans who had seen the lows over the last two decades pleading for Dolan to step in and stabilize the situation

New York Knicks president Phil Jackson in attendance in the first half during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

In February, during a rare public comment, Dolan said, “Three years ago, I signed a contract with Phil Jackson. The man who has more championship rings as far as I know than anybody else. He was the best guy we thought we could find to run the New York Knicks. And I made an agreement with him.

“The agreement didn’t say that you have to have this amount of wins by this time or anything of the sort like that. I literally turned over the entire basketball operations over to Phil and Steve. And that is where I am at. Whether I like the results or don’t like the results, I am going to honor that agreement, all the way to the end.”

“It’s weird that you would bring Phil in, pay him, to win the press conference,” another Eastern Conference front office member said. “It’s interesting how the owner’s mind works.”

Right now, it’s interesting how just about everything works for the Knicks. Entering the summer with Jackson talking about a youth movement, after signing on a group of veteran free agents last season, the team must sort through the minefields he had laid around Anthony and Porzingis. 

He still was clearly in charge last week when the Knicks drafted French point guard Frank Ntilikina with the insistence on the triangle offense a key factor. Head coach Jeff Hornacek had been forced to strictly adhere to the offense at midseason last year.