PHIL: BLAME ME
Knicks president Phil Jackson says he is to blame, not coach Derek Fisher (inset), for the team’s terrible season, but there is plenty of blame to go around. The NBA-worst Knicks dropped to 5-35 with their 15th straight loss, trailing by as many as 45 in a 110-82 thrashing by the Hornets in a Garden matinee on Saturday.
If Knicks fans want to blame somebody for the mess that is the 201415 season, they should blame Phil Jackson.
And that comes directly from one who should know: Phil Jackson.
In an 18minute discourse on the sorry state of the Knicks before Saturday’s 11082 matinee massacre by Charlotte at the Garden, Jackson offered a “mea culpa” for the horrific nature of the team while accepting responsibility and asking fans to cut rookie coach Derek Fisher some slack.
“This is a mea culpa. I take responsibility for it, and the fans, I want them to leave Derek alone in this regard,” said Jackson, who several times expressed support for Fisher. “He’s doing the best job possible. It’s not his fault.”
Jackson acknowledged the team he assembled for the start of the season was not quite suited to be, you know, a relevant NBA team. But it wasn’t long ago that Jackson felt the Knicks could contend for the playoffs.
“In the East,” Jackson said of the postseason, “it wasn’t a really big challenge, a challenge I thought this team was capable of. They obviously weren’t.
“Obviously, I didn’t do the right thing in picking the group of guys that were here,” Jackson said, noting guys with guaranteed contracts the organization had to keep. “But in anticipating we were going to better, that we were giving hope to our fans that maybe there’s a possible playoff opportunity here, that goes on me. We now have to take responsibility and move forward. … Now I have to do the job that I was brought here to do.”
Jackson said he spoke with Hall of Famer Walt Frazier on New Year’s Eve about the team’s plight.
“At that particular point, were looking to start making changes in our ball club, not to end our efforts for the season but to change our efforts for the season,” Jackson said. “We felt like we weren’t competitive, we weren’t playBy with the kind of energy we had to have. [It] was quite evident at that time.”
Jackson indicated the work is just starting and that anything is possible before the trade deadline.
“No one should be surwe prised at what we do from here on out,” Jackson said. “We know that movement is going to happen.”
Jackson has made two significant trades in his Knicks regime and he defended both — to an exing tent. The trade of Tyson Chandler, which on the surface looks like doover material, netted the Knicks Cleanthony Early and Shane Larkin. This past week’s salary dump of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert, Jackson, said, took a couple days even for him to accept. That trade was followed by the release of Samuel Dalembert.
The Knicks got a pair of trade exceptions, three players they waived (although two, Lance Thomas and Lou Amundson, were signed to 10day contracts Saturday) and a 2019 secondrounder from the Cavaliers.
“My first impulse is that we’re not getting back a player of substance with this trade. But looking at the financial end of it and our record … it was the right thing to do,” Jackson said.
And in one other area of recurring Knicks news, Jackson said any decision about Carmelo Anthony shutting it down or undergoing surgery “has to be up to him. I think forMelo the last resort is surgery, as it should be for anybody.”
Anthony also is key for the Knicks future — and not just on the court. Jackson sees him as a recruiter for free agents and believes the New York element is a lure that may be needed to offset the negativity of the season.
“We’re all worried about the fact that money is not
going to just be able to buy you necessary talent. I do think the NewYork situation holds a high regard in players and agents that have contacted us. We have no lack of agents that have contacted us for their players,” Jackson said. “Simply because we’re having a very difficult year doesn’t mean that that’s gone awry. Having Carmelo as a lead for us … really helps us.”
After the Knicks were embarrassed yet again, Fisher said it “means a lot” to hear Jackson has his back.
“You always want to have the support of your leadership and your management and the people that you work with,” Fisher said. “He understands how I think about the way we’re trying to do this.”