Every so often a member of the New York Knicks front office does or says something stupid. And by every so often, we mean once a week. The latest victim of said verbal diarrhea is GM Phil Jackson, who went into some detail about the word “goink” in an interview with the New York Times.
The tweet, for reference.
NBA analysts give me some diagnostics on how 3pt oriented teams are faring this playoffs…seriously, how's it goink?
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) May 10, 2015
And Phil’s somewhat nonsensical explanation.
Q. In the middle of the playoffs, you took to Twitter to ask N.B.A. analysts to give you “some diagnostics” on how 3-point-oriented teams were faring. It struck most as a criticism of teams like the Warriors who take a lot of 3-point shots. You asked, “How’s it goink?” What was that about?
JACKSON: They have all these analysts. I just wanted to see someone come back to me with statistics: Is 3-point shooting in the playoffs as consistent as it is in the regular season? Does your 3-point-shooting percentage change because you’re in the playoffs? No one figured that one out. And that’s probably me being obtuse to leave it open at the end. But “goink” is one of those New York expressions that we use, and I will tell you this: I learned something. Someone sent me the fact that if you look it up on Urban Dictionary, you’ll find out what it means in today’s society.
Q. Should I look?
JACKSON: Well, it’s rather bizarre to say the least.
Q. So it wasn’t just a typo?
JACKSON: “Goink” is a castoff expression, right? Instead of, “How’s it going?,” it’s, “How’s it goink?” It turned out to be either a combination of a mixed ethnic group: part Korean, part Chinese. Or it’s a vernacular term for how do you deal with a sexual partner.
Q. That was not your intention though?
JACKSON: No, I had no idea.
As others have noted, there are a lot of unfortunate urban-dictionary definitions for the word “goink.” One is awfully racist and the other involves a sexual act with a man’s penis and testicles.
Suffice it to say, that’s not what Phil was going for. As always, the moral of the story here is simple. Don’t tweet. Not ever. It’s not worth it. Not when a typo turns you into a racist, sexual deviant.
(Via the New York Times)
