Don’t stop celebrating, Knicks fans. I’m not going to tell you that Phil Jackson’s departure from the team was a bad thing or that it was the wrong call. It absolutely was not.
While we all sort of came to the conclusion fairly early on during Jackson’s three-year stint as team president that he wasn’t fit for the job, the last few weeks really confirmed that he needed to go.
Guys, he was really thinking about trading Kristaps Porzingis. That’s like falling onto a big pile of money and then just trying to just give it away to strangers.
Forget his public witch hunt of Carmelo Anthony, which was completely unfair to the star forward despite his occasional ventures into the dramatics with the media. His dealing with Porzingis alone should have set off every single alarm and red flag leading up to the NBA draft. Team owner James Dolan should have gotten rid of him immediately at that moment.
Instead, Dolan not only let Jackson take calls from teams including the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics, but he let the the Zen Master make New York’s selection at No. 8 overall last Thursday, picking 18-year-old French point guard Frank Ntilikina.
Jackson expressed that Ntilikina fits his vision of a team led by Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez even though the higher-rated Dennis Smith Jr. out of NC State was still on the board. Of course, he was taken with the following pick by the Dallas Mavericks, which creates the perfect narrative of ineptitude 10 years from now if he becomes a superstar and Ntilikina fails to develop into the stellar two-way guard that Jackson was expecting.
While all this was happening, Dolan was playing a gig with his band … during the draft.
And now, after this ridiculousness, just three days out from free agency, Dolan decided it was time to pull the plug on Jackson after he obtained the assets to fit his specific and quirky vision to build the team his way.
It looks as though Carmelo Anthony was the driving force behind Jackson’s exit. To keep it short, Jackson wanted Anthony out, we all know this. Dolan did not.
So let’s just think about how silly this is. After you allowed Jackson to almost fully build his team — really the last piece was dealing Anthony — Dolan stepped up, did something he should have done weeks ago and will now get someone else to try and make the former president’s vision work.
That’s ludicrous.
The lack of continuity is only going to hurt the product on the floor as well unless Anthony can buy into whatever system the Knicks decide to run this fall while nurturing the youngsters toward stardom. That’s of course assuming he isn’t bought out.
But does Dolan really care about that? My guess is no.
