Kurt Rambis' reign as Knicks head coach has gone about as well as anyone looking up his 64-161 career record would have guessed. The Knicks have dropped 16 of 24 games since he was elevated to head coach and have fallen out of the Eastern Conference playoff race and back into obscurity.
Phil Jackson keeping Kurt Rambis as head coach would be indefensible
If Phil Jackson seriously thinks Kurt Rambis is the best option to be his future head coach, the Knicks have much bigger problems.
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
Worse, though, is the circus that’s ensued since his buddy Phil Jackson handed him the job.
Rambis is against small-ball and is showing little interest in turning miracle rookie Kristaps Porzingis into the hell-raiser of a center he's destined to become. He's put his own win-loss record above the growth of the team's young players. He's essentially benched Arron Afflalo for the fossil that is Sasha Vujacic, then tried to claim that doing so was actually helping boost Afflalo's free agency stock. Don't forget about that whole funny business with his Twitter account.
All this makes the many reports that Rambis has an excellent chance of getting the “interim” tag removed from his title both baffling and disconcerting for Knicks fans. Phil Jackson isn’t merely open to handing the job to a clueless dinosaur who’s done nothing in his career to prove himself worthy of such a position. It appears Jackson actually wants to stake the Knicks’ future on this man.
Sources told ESPN.com that Rambis, who has served as the Knicks' interim coach since Derek Fisher was fired Feb. 8, is the preferred choice of team president Phil Jackson, who sources say is pushing for a new multiyear deal for Rambis.
The Wall Street Journal’s Chris Herring reported that he’s heard similar rumblings. As he is wont to do, the New York Daily News’ Frank Isola added some interesting details to the picture:
Phil Jackson is more vocal at Knicks practices since Kurt Rambis replaced Derek Fisher as head coach in February. For Jackson, it really is the best of both worlds; he can satisfy his coaching appetite without having the losses tarnish his resume.
Several players confirmed that they have noticed Jackson taking a more active role in helping Rambis run the team. Fisher mostly resisted Jackson’s input, especially in front of the team because he felt it undermined his authority....Rambis, meanwhile, is Jackson’s preferred choice to keep the job because Rambis is more than willing to do things Jackson’s way.
Since taking the job as Knicks president two years ago Jackson had mostly remained quiet and avoided on-the-record comments to the press. Yet over the past few weeks, he’s had no qualms publicly praising his longtime pal.
“He has a way of handling players,” Jackson said of Rambis recently, via the Daily News. “He’s relaxed yet he has the ability to keep them focused on the important parts of it. He’s a defensive-oriented guy. I had him as my defensive coordinator for my teams in 2007, eight and nine. And I think he has a real good handle on that part. So we’ll see how they go.”
Rambis might have helped Jackson back in the Laker days, but thus far his presence is making no positive impact on Jackson's current team. The Knicks have scored 102.2 points per 100 possessions and surrendered 104.9 since Rambis took over for Derek Fisher, per NBA.com. Prior to that point, they were scoring 102 and allowing 104.5. In the process, Rambis has torpedoed Porzingis' ascention, frustrated Robin Lopez and made Carmelo Anthony appear even sadder about the Knicks' situation. In fact, Anthony went out of his way to suggest that the Knicks must employ a wide-ranging coaching search following the season.
If true, this has left Knicks fans in the most precipitous of positions: needing their buffoon of an owner to bail them out. According to Isola, Jackson must receive the blessing of Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan before making a decision, and Dolan isn't completely on board with the idea of giving Rambis the full-time gig. Isola even floats a (seemingly far-fetched) scenario that involves decorated Raptors head honcho Masai Ujiri taking Jackson's job in a couple of years.
This is merely conjecture for now, and Jackson has proven to be a difficult man to predict. If Jackson does indeed hire Rambis, though, it will prove his critics right and validate all those who believe that he only cares about converting the Triangle atheists of the world. It would show that Jackson has indeed transformed into the basketball equivalent of a religious fanatic that’s blinded by his life mission of appeasing the Triangle gods.
Jackson was brought in to the Garden to help being some competency and common sense to the room and right the constantly-sinking ship. Staking his legacy on Rambis, a man with a terrible head coaching résumé and almost no respect around the league, would do far more than simply stagnate all the positive steps the franchise has taken over the past few years. It would erase them completely and zap all the confidence Knicks fans once had in him.
See More:
