The New York Knicks are a bit of a mess right now. The team’s head coaching search is being led by Phil Jackson, but the problem is, no one can seem to figure out what he’s up to.
The Zen Master apparently was only using David Blatt as a smokescreen. Former Knicks great Patrick Ewing wants the job, but Jackson isn’t really appearing to give him any serious thought, and New York didn’t even reach out to Tom Thibodeau. It all appears to be headed for Kurt Rambis, which is a huge mistake.
Despite the fact that Carmelo Anthony said he wanted to be involved in the Knicks offseason decision-making process, he apparently is just as out of the loop as everyone else. Anthony told ESPN’s Ian Begley during a recent promotional appearance that there isn’t much he can do besides literally bang Phil’s door down so he will hear him out.
“I’m pretty sure people would assume that [I’d be in contact with Jackson]. I would assume that too. But what can I do? Bang down the door? Knock down the door and point a finger at Phil and say why hell you ain’t …”
Yikes. Anthony probably was just joking around, but there is almost assuredly some legit animosity there. Melo is supposed to be the franchise player, and is probably thinking the same thing everyone else is about Kurt Rambis.
During a recent interview with Sirius XM Radio, Anthony said it would be a “problem” if the Knicks didn’t put their due diligence into finding a coach.
“It needs to be a process. As long as there’s a process and you go through the proper channels to figure out exactly what you want to do, then I don’t have no problem with that,” Anthony told the radio channel. “But if you don’t go through that process and you don’t at least look and see what’s out there, then we have a problem.”
Maybe Phil has a trick up his sleeve that no one knows about yet, and until the Knicks officially hire a coach, we won’t know for sure what his end game is. In the meantime, however, it appears that Jackson may want to smooth things over with his star player and at least pretend like he cares what he has to say.
(Via ESPN)
