Total control
The Knicks have given Phil Jackson the full authority to build his kind of winning team,
Phil Jackson got what he wanted. Complete control of the New York Knicks.
Those were his terms if he were to uproot his pleasant Southern California beach retirement life and take the position of Knicks president, and he made that clear to team owner James Dolan.
“We had this discussion in January about this particular aspect because Jim knew I wasn’t going to come if this didn’t happen,” Jackson said.
It did happen. This is Jackson’s show, with major coaching and player-personnel decisions coming the next few months.
In two admissions that give Knicks fans real hope true change is afoot — and ones that might be used against him later — Dolan conceded he was “by no means a basketball expert” and said he was ceding power to Jackson “willingly and gratefully.”
“Phil will be in charge of all basketball decisions,” Dolan said.
Jackson, who has been out of the game since he left the Los Angeles Lakers after the 2011 season, is rejuvenated.
“There’s an energy here that I always remember,” he said.
He’ll need that energy. He has to reinvigorate a franchise that fell from second in the Eastern Conference last season to just outside the playoff race this year but more important hasn’t reached the conference finals since 2000.
Jackson seemed at ease in a news conference packed with about 500 people, including Jack- son’s former Knicks teammates Clyde Frazier and Dick Barnett. He called his return to New York an “auspicious beginning.”
Unequivocally, Jackson insisted the team would be coached and played by guys who bought into his vision of system basketball founded on fundamentals and caring for one another. It’s the philosophy that led to Jackson’s 11 championships as coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
Jackson repeatedly came back to that theme.
“There are things that are important to me,” he said, almost dismissive of the style of today’s game and the skills of the players. “(I will) ferret out players who want to play the type of ball we want to exhibit here at Madison Square Garden.”
There is the sense Jackson is putting the band back together,
“There’s no better place to win than New York City. It really is something special.”
only with different members.
His first order of business will be to evaluate this season’s team and determine, “Who wants to play together? Who looks like they can play together? And how can we build on that?” Jackson said.
To get going on that mission, rebuilding the team, Jackson wants forward Carmelo Anthony, who can become a free agent in the summer, to stay.
Anthony’s game has been the subject of legitimate and misin- formed criticisms, but Jackson made it clear he wasn’t concerned.
As a coach, one of his strengths was getting the most out of players. As a president, he wants to make sure he has the right players in place for the team to win.
“I think Carmelo is a great player,” Jackson said. “He still has another level he can go to. Together with the team we create, he can get there.”
Coach Mike Woodson’s future with the team is murkier. It’s only fair that an executive gets to succeed or fail with his people. In a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports, Jackson said he told Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, “The general manager has to be able to pick his coach so they can win it together.”
Jackson acknowledged it wouldn’t be an easy fix, especially with the Knicks short on draft picks and high on payroll in 201415. But the free agent class and salary cap space for 2015-16 are encouraging.
Jackson complained about the overwrought use of the word “culture” in pro sports but then went on to say that was what he had to forge in New York. That new culture will include more frequent news conferences with reporters than previous Knicks executives had.
Often introspective, Jackson said that while he was recovering from prostate cancer and doing physical therapy for joint and bone issues people came to see him and ask for basketball advice, planting the seed he could be in a front office.
The possibility of joining a team in Seattle interested him, Jackson said. And in a casual meeting with Jerry Reinsdorf at spring training in 2013, he said, the Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner encouraged him to pursue an executive’s role.
“I got intrigued by the idea of being in an executive management position,” he said.
Dolan met with Jackson in December, talks advanced in January and Jackson wanted in by early March.
Where will he live? In New York most of the time. “I have to jump in with both feet,” he said.
While Jackson will scout college games, it’s clear a staff will handle a majority of that, especially when it comes to watching players overseas. Guaranteed he will scour the NBA for underappreciated players who can contribute immediately.
Jackson, like Dolan, wants a contender as soon as possible.
“There’s no better place to win than New York City,” he said. “It really is something special.”
And to win a title as an executive with the Knicks?
“It would be a capstone,” he said, “on a remarkable career that I have had.”
Phil Jackson