NBA teams
Johnette Howard, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Phil has a plan, we just don't get it

NBA, New York Knicks

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Phil Jackson decided to show his face Tuesday for what he clearly hoped will be the last of his self-flagellating media conferences about the New York Knicks. If you're Jackson, owner of 13 championship rings, the man James Dolan hired to keep the eternal flame honoring Red Holzman burning bright, summer free agency and the NBA draft can't arrive fast enough. The ugliness of the Knicks' just-completed 17-65 season has been replaced by a new mantra, at least for Jackson.

Judge him on this summer, he asked.

"I think the real issue is coming up ... how we do," Jackson said. "We have some [salary cap] money to work with and we have a draft pick."

The Knicks are always selling Someday, and that has been true nearly all 15 years of owner James Dolan's tenure.

Jackson arrived in March 2014, predicted this was a playoff team by fall, and was blowing up the roster by the first week of January while getting precious little in return.

But Jackson was again selling Someday when he met with reporters at the Knicks' MSG Training Center "at the press's request," according to the team's media release. As if -- what? -- Jackson perhaps had no intention of facing the music (again) if no one had asked for a season recap? Fat chance of that happening here, in the media capital of the world, when you're the league's only bi-coastal GM, your staying power is questioned because you've said yourself that you may not even finish out your five-year contract, and you work for a team that aggressively peddles history as if it happened yesterday, not decades ago.

The Knicks always try to sell the World's Most Famous arena when the teams on the floor don't win -- and when Carmelo Anthony is out, as Anthony was much of this past season. Madison Square Garden is the only star the Knicks have, aside from Jackson.

And even Jackson is a question mark now.

Even Jackson conceded that point in the 45 minutes he spoke. He allowed that it took him some time as a rookie team president to learn "the ways and means" of the job.

But this was definitely a different Jackson than the humbled one who earlier this season admitted his Knicks were a "failed experiment" and "a project gone awry."

There was no harkening back to how he derided the team for its "fiasco" of a loss in Denver, or mused about inviting the anger of "the basketball gods" that night J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert returned to the Garden after he traded them to Cleveland for next to nothing, only to see them rattle the rim with dunks and 3-pointers.

When asked to rate his own first-year performance, Jackson didn't beat himself up. He deadpanned, "I was really surprised I didn't get Executive of the Year. It really bothered me." And nearly everyone sardined into the little media conference room laughed.

The takeaway was Jackson is way, way, way beyond ready to forget about last season and he has no interest in autopsying what it means for his legacy.

He pointed out that once the season looked lost by December with the team mired in a "19-game losing streak or whatever it was," to his mind "it didn't matter if we won 17 or 30 games." And he was right about that. He was right not to make some half-step moves to put a little lipstick on this disaster.

Jackson said Tuesday that he doesn't want the Knicks to be one of those clubs that just squeak into the playoffs season after season. He wants to establish something that will last long after he's gone, starting with using the Knicks' lottery pick to hopefully land a player who can be a franchise cornerstone for 10 to 15 years, the same as Patrick Ewing once was. And all of that was terrific to hear.

Of course, accomplishing all that depends on Jackson doing far, far better at player evaluations and transactions that he has done so far. The Judgement Question will always remain the big "if" about him until he proves otherwise. Some of his statements Tuesday about what killed this year's team did nothing to assuage the worries that Jackson has the know-how to build a team, even with a couple former GMs (Mark Warkentien and John Gabriel) as wingmen, and with Steve Mills as his business-side guy.

For example, Jackson's opinion on the Knicks' roster might surprise you, given the D-league castoff feel it had, and the fact only five Knicks are under contract for next season -- Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, Tim Hardaway Jr., Langston Galloway and Cleanthony Early.

It was beyond disappointing to hear Jackson say he sees adding perhaps only three new players. Only three? So, Jackson blew up a Knicks team that won 37 games in 2013-14 but is wiling to only embroider around the edges of last season's club that lost the most games in franchise history?

He's willing to roll again by handpicking five of those guys to stay on? And he's banking on a rebound season from Calderon?

Why?

It will also grind some folks to hear Jackson has no intention of abandoning his triangle offense. Despite all the outside conjecture that the system constricts everything -- from which free agents are willing to come here to whom the Knicks might select in the upcoming draft -- Jackson sees the triangle as having quite a wonderful effect. He touted it as a "unique" system that will attract players the Knicks intend to target. Failing that, at least, it will impress their "advisers and agents" enough to steer players toward New York.

But again, why? Because, Jackson said, what those wise men advisers understand is the triangle is "an opportunity" for players to grow their all-around games, whereas  "players just look at who they're playing with."

He better be right. Because Jackson has about $30 million to spend, and historically the NBA stars that have shaken free in recent years have ignored the Knicks. If the Knicks opt to draft the player who fits the triangle best instead of the best player, that would be a mistake as well.

Jackson also said he'd be willing to trade the Knicks' first-round pick at the right price, especially if the Knicks came out of the lottery with no better than the fifth choice overall rather than the No. 1 through 4 picks. But given the Knicks' many needs, that wasn't shocking.

He also commended the job that rookie head coach Derek Fisher did this past season in establishing the sort of team culture, vision and ball-sharing style that Jackson wants the franchise to have.

Jackson argued that when you take all of it together, there are a lot of "positives" to look forward to now that the hard choices and pain of last season are behind the Knicks. He looked and sounded palpably more cheerful himself. He even invoked the names of Dave DeBusschere and Willis Reed and Bill Bradley a couple times as he spoke about how he wants to restore the franchise to glory for years and years to come.

But the most sense he made was when he indirectly contradicted Fisher's recent assessment that the Knicks could go from worst to first place by the end of next season.

"That would be talking crazy," Jackson said.

^ Back to Top ^