Phil Jackson has no interest in Knicks’ coaching job, according to report
Former Lakers and Bulls coach Phil Jackson reportedly met with the New York Knicks but said he had no interest in a return to coaching.
Kevork Djansezian
Phil Jackson met a few weeks ago with New York Knicks general manager Steve Mills, who apparently asked the longtime NBA head coach whether he had interest in leading the stumbling franchise, reports ESPN. Jackson apparently declined interest in coaching the Knicks, but such a meeting brings up another issue altogether.
New York is still employing coach Mike Woodson to lead a team that holds a 22-40 record and is facing a crucial summer of wooing forward Carmelo Anthony back to the Big Apple.
The word was that Mike Woodson didn't exactly trust the folks in Knicks front office...and that was before they met with Phil.
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) March 7, 2014 ESPN’s Marc Stein reported earlier on Friday that the rumblings among NBA coaches indicate that Woodson is a dead man walking. But he could be walking until the end of the 2013-14 season, when Knicks owner James Dolan pitches Woodson’s apparent incompetence to Anthony as a reason for New York’s struggles. True or not, such a move would at least add the allure of a coaching change, which could entice Anthony to return to the Knicks when he hits free agency this summer -- or so Dolan’s thinking reportedly goes.
All of that would seemingly align with New York already scouting to make a big-time coaching hire.
Seth Rosenthal of Knicks blog Posting and Toasting isn’t high on any of these reports.
... do the Knicks think Melo is a dumb baby? Because if he’s not a dumb baby, he sees that the Knicks’ roster this season has major flaws. And he sees that Mike Woodson has been playing to those flaws since the beginning. And he understands that the Knicks should be months past the point of valuing the present season over the long term. And he isn’t fooled by some harebrained plot to scapegoat the coach that’s both self-destructive and a tacit admission that the roster sucks. And he recognizes that it would take sacrifice to repair all of the above.
I bet Melo gets all that. If he gets it and it offends him, he’ll leave, and there should be layers of contingencies in place when he does.
It’s very believable the Knicks front office is already involved in a coaching search without firing Woodson beforehand. Dolan, after all, declared New York a championship contender earlier this season and told his staff he expected as much.
So it goes in Knicks land.
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