Absence made their hearts less fond
Phil Jackson’s broken engagement with Jeanie Buss could reverberate from New York to L.A.
In today’s social media world, it isn’t all that uncommon for a relationship to be announced — or ended — via social media.
What is uncommon is for a social media relationship announcement to come from a 71-year-old man, as it did when Phil Jackson announced on Twitter at just before 11 p.m. Tuesday that he and Jeanie Buss had mutually decided that their nearly two-decade relationship — and almost four-year engagement — should end.
On the surface, this seems like nothing more than a personal situation the two of them now have to deal with, like the end of any relationship. But when one party is the president of the New York Knicks, and the other is the managing partner of the Los Angeles Lakers, nothing is clean and simple.
Ever since Jackson agreed to owner James Dolan’s offer to return to the Knicks, the team he won two championships with as a player in the 1970s, to run their basketball operations in 2014, his relationship with Buss has made for uneasy feelings on a variety of levels. The most obvious is the fact that two of the top decision makers of two of the league’s marquee franchises were in a relationship together, an unprecedented situation for the NBA to have to navigate.
But their relationship also cast a larger shadow over both franchises. The most obvious part of this was Jackson’s long-term future in New York — something that’s been a hot topic in the Big Apple almost since the moment he took the job in March of 2014.
With a mutual option for both the Knicks and Jackson in his contract after this season, there was always the suspicion that Jackson — having drafted what appears to be a budding superstar in 7-foot-3 forward Kristaps Porzingis — could be headed back to Los Angeles this summer, citing a job well done regardless of the lack of success the Knicks have had thus far since he took over.
That three-year window also perfectly lined up with the three-years Lakers executive vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss — Jeanie’s brother — has been operating to try to get the Lakers back into contention in the Western Conference. That’s at least the window Jeanie publicly has insisted he’s been operating under. For his part, Jim has attempted to wiggle out of the quote he gave back in 2014 saying that he would resign from his job if the Lakers weren’t a contending team by the end of this season.
Given the Lakers are 12-23 after a 102-100 loss to the Utah Jazz at Staples Center on Tuesday night and are coming off the worst three seasons in the storied Los Angeles portion of the franchise’s history, it’s safe to say the Lakers won’t be contending by season’s end.
Jim tried to downplay expectations as much as possible.
“We’re assuming that the Lakers will not be in a position for me to stay confident about me staying in that position,” he said. “You’re trying to predict where we’re going to be.”
The problem for him is that the Lakers, with Tuesday’s loss, matched the Philadelphia 76ers for most defeats this season, making even that lowest of bars — not being one of the three worst teams in the West — potentially too high to clear.
But Tuesday’s announcement changed the outlook moving forward for both franchises. Jackson has made it known recently that he’s grown comfortable in his new environment in New York, and Dolan has always been one to be happy allowing someone else to take the slings and arrows of New York’s tabloid media whenever his Knicks struggle, as they often have. And Jackson is more than happy to be the public face of the team — even as it has led to recent spats with Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.
The fact he and Buss broke off their engagement and cited the physical distance between the two as a significant reason behind it would lead one to believe Jackson won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Jackson’s $12 million annual salary doesn’t hurt, either.
Meanwhile, Jackson officially being out of the picture rules out one option and potentially opens the door for others. One of those could be a return in some capacity of Lakers legend Jerry West, who currently is an executive board member of the Golden State Warriors, the organization from which the Lakers brought back another longtime franchise stalwart, Luke Walton, to be its coach this past off-season. West still plays a significant role with Golden State — he’s known to have been a huge proponent of not trading Klay Thompson for Kevin Love in the summer of 2014 — and clearly still has a passion for the sport, though it’s unclear how much he would desire to have a more involved day-to-day role with a franchise, given he will be 79 this spring.
It also removes the possibility, however remote, of Jackson returning the favour to Jim Buss after it had appeared Jackson was going to rejoin the Lakers as coach after Mike Brown had been fired early in the 2012-13 season — only for Jim Buss to hire Mike D’Antoni at the last minute instead.
One very public relationship ended with Tuesday night, severing a significant and unique tie between two of the tent-pole franchises of the NBA. The potential ramifications of this development, however, will soon be felt.