Phil Jackson has done enough in his career to demand the respect of anyone around the NBA, but his devotion to the Triangle offense as the rest of the league continues to evolve has tarnished his image to many fans, especially disgruntled Knicks supporters. With the roster he inherited, it’s still too early to call his Knicks tenure anything but a work in progress, but he’s doing himself no favors with the shade he’s thrown at the Golden State Warriors.
Perhaps he’s still smarting from Steve Kerr choosing to coach Golden State instead of the Knicks, but the fact that Jackson has said anything diminishing about a team that has embodied his professed ideals of unselfishness and value of team success over individual accolades is puzzling. Nothing he’s said has been more puzzling, however, than his comparison of Steph Curry to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, a career 35 percent three-point shooter from the 1990s who never averaged more than 19 points per game.
The comparison was rightly met with derision, but Curry has finally responded himself, and in more diplomatic fashion than one might expect.
Curry on how Phil Jackson’s tweet inspired him to watch Chris Jackson LSU highlights https://t.co/VqjQma8KQu pic.twitter.com/fc8tMEqiEj
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) March 17, 2016
It’s good that Curry took Jackson’s words in the best possible light, because any other way you look at it, it’s completely insane. It’s like comparing Dirk Nowitzki to Raef LaFrentz. Sure, there are a couple similarities on a granular level, but scale also matter just a teensy bit.
Good on Steph, though.
