Before you watch Spike Lee’s film on the triangle offense, it’s worthwhile to listen to Phil Jackson describe the principals of it in his own words.

Below, an excerpt from Jackson's conversation earlier this month with New Yorker writer Ben McGrath about the triangle offense:

McGrath: How do you go about trying to change culture of an organization from scratch?

Phil: “The first thing you do in my mind is to have a system of how you want to play basketball. And I don’t think that -- everybody talks about a triangle offense and what’s associated with our background, my coaching staff and myself, has been this triangle offense. I really don’t put that much emphasis on triangle. It’s got a name but it’s a system. It’s a system of how to play. And it’s organized. And I think you have to have an organized system to play basketball the right way.

“It puts people in position on the floor where there’s spacing and there’s opportunities. The first priority obviously in any offense is to get down the court as quickly as possible while the court is undefended and score. And then when people start showing up and presenting themselves in front of the ball and the basket and you have to do something, then you have to have an organization. And in that organization sense you have to be spaced, you have to move the ball, you have to have purpose with the movement, you have to provide really good opportunities for people to be able to shoot the ball. You have to rebound the basketball and get back on defense.

“It’s not that complicated. It’s not rocket science. Sometimes it’s hard for players to understand exactly how (they) fit into this sequence of events. But that’s what we’re trying to do as a staff is to give them the idea (that) there’s an orderly way to play this game and when you do that it’s logical, there’s good shots. You play defense from it. You have second chance opportunities. You limit the turnovers and the transition by your opponents and it puts you in position to win.”

Question: Do you have faith that the triangle offense will work with the Knicks and lead to a title during Jackson’s tenure? What personnel changes are needed to make it work?

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