Jackson’s team is still broken
NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony had a half-season of clues about what Phil Jackson thought of him, and now it was his turn to evaluate his boss.
Anthony had trumpeted his trust in Jackson when he re-signed in 2014 and reaffirmed it months later, even as Jackson continued trading away key players from the best team Anthony ever played on in New York.
Reminded of that recently and asked if he still trusted Jackson, Anthony stopped well short.
“I trust the process,” he said, mimicking Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The process isn't going well for Jackson in New York.
The Knicks are 23-34, 12th in the Eastern Conference and on pace to miss the playoffs for the third time in Jackson's three full seasons as president of basketball operations. He's made his relationship with Anthony worse and hasn't made the Knicks better, and a guy who could do little wrong as a coach just can't get it right as an executive.
Maybe Jackson can swing a trade to fix things before today’s deadline.
Or maybe he'll just never fix the Knicks.
If Jackson is planning anything, it remains a mystery. He hasn't spoken to reporters covering the Knicks since his preseason press conference in September — backtracking from his vow to be accessible when he took the job — and isn't expected to before the deadline. He has made only three postings on Twitter all season.
Yet he's still made plenty of noise.
He angered LeBron James by referring to his friends and business partners as a “posse” in an ESPN story . And he upset some of the league's other power players with his actions toward Anthony — which could prove damaging when trying to lure free agents. Jackson has either appeared to endorse or refused to distance himself from articles criticizing his best player and has largely cut off communication between them — after saying when he was hired that he planned to focus on “how players are treated” and “the kind of culture that's built.”
Hall of Fame finalist and former Orlando Magic player Tracy McGrady told reporters this weekend he couldn't remain quiet the way Anthony has.
“I'm not going to let you disrespect [me] in the public's eye like that,” McGrady said. “You're not going to be sending subliminal messages about me like that and I don't respond to that. I don't operate like that. I'm just not going to do it. And then you hide and don't do any media? You leave everything for me to talk about? Nah, that's not cool.”
Jackson retains the support of Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan, who said in a recent ESPN Radio interview that he would not fire Jackson during the two-plus years that remain on his contract. (Both sides have an option to terminate the deal after this season).
Dolan didn't even express much disappointment in the results, even though the Knicks are 72-149 since the start of 2014-15.
“He was the best guy we thought we could find to run the New York Knicks,” Dolan said.
Maybe if he'd been hiring Jackson to coach, as Jackson's 11 championships are a record for coaches. But there were questions about how he would do as an executive, and the answers haven't been good.