My, my, speak of
the Knickerbockers: Phil Jackson, the
coach with 11 NBA championships earned with the Bulls and Lakers, is stepping
down—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he’s being forced to step
down—as president of the Knicks. The
genius behind the triangle offense assembled teams that went 80-166 in the
three full seasons he ran the operation.
Jackson could do
no wrong as a coach. Something about
having Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant brought out the genius in him. In the front office, though, Jackson proved
to be as inept as Jerry Krause in his post-Jordan (and –Jackson) phase. Jackson signed Carmelo Anthony to a
five-year, $124 million deal, throwing in a no-trade clause to boot, then this
season tried to get Anthony to accept a
trade. He drafted forward Kristops
Porzingis, who is actually good, so good in fact that he got sick of losing and
let Jackson know about it. Apparently,
Jackson went into last week’s draft trying to trade Porzingis. One man’s attempted revenge is another’s victory,
you might say.
Jackson and the
Celtics’ Red Auerbach engaged in a public feud over who was the better coach;
Jackson figured he won that contest, 11 championship rings to Auerbach’s nine. Only Auerbach moved into the Boston front
office and won another seven rings.
Advantage, Auerbach, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment