Phil Jackson pressed on Rose issue

GREENBURGH, NY—The thing Phil Jackson didn't want to talk about at a media availability Friday afternoon was the first topic he addressed.

"We have some obvious issues that have been brought up over the course of our season, some things that have been in the newspapers,” the Knicks president said at the top of his opening statement. “I'd like to address Derrick Rose, and the process that he's going through. We believe that it will not affect his season, hopefully, training camp or games. We're going to let the due process of the justice system work its way through in the next week-and-a-half or so. We want to put this to rest, because there's been a lot of talk about this."

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The effort to preempt the press did not work, however, and the extent to which Derrick Rose's civil suit, in which he has been accused of participating in a gang rape, looms and defines how people perceive the Knicks cannot be what the team had in mind when Jackson dealt for Rose this summer.

To be sure, the Rose trade itself represented an opportunity, “a one-shot deal” in Jackson's words, to expedite the rebuilding process he undertook when he was hired as team president. Now, with a significant media spotlight on the accusations against Rose, the Knicks are making headlines they probably didn't expect.

Probably is the word to use, though, since Jackson declined to elaborate on what he knew about the civil suit before the trade, or whether he was concerned about public perception.

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“I don't think we're going to talk about that,” Jackson said. “Thanks anyway for the question."

However, his initial answer, one that seemed to leave open the possibility of Rose missing time either in training camp or the regular season, led reporters to return to that for clarification. Even setting aside the concern about Rose's alleged actions, there are basketball ramifications for Rose's availability as well. Both Jackson and head coach Jeff Hornacek pointed to Rose's work as primary ball handler as something that will free up Carmelo Anthony to run the lane, for instance, instead of serving as frequent point-forward.

But that only works if Rose is present.

“We're not going to talk about that. We're going to let the process play out. We're not concerned,” Jackson said. He paused, seeming to imagine tabloid headlines in his head over the phrade “We're not concerned.” “We understand this is serious. But this has to be done outside of our control. It's something we can't control. So Derrick has expressed that he's not concerned with it, and we're going to leave it at that.”

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Then he tried to put the Rose topic to rest once and for all.

“We all all right on that, guys?,” Jackson said, putting his hands out in front of him in a “stop” pose. “That's it, we've covered it?”

As Jackson himself put it, that conversation, just like Rose's availability, is out of his control.