What does a legendary coach-turned-GM do when his team doesn’t make the playoffs and posts its worst record in franchise history? Hop on the Twitter and let those darn kids know the way basketball is supposed to be played. Phil Jackson, current GM of the New York Knicks, has turned into the old man on his porch yelling at kids to get off his lawn. There’s freshly-cut grass and you better not stomp on it!
As he is wont to do, Phil weighed in on contemporary ideology of basketball’s new analytics movement, which argues that certain shots (like three-point field goals) should be taken with greater frequency since there’s a higher return on the attempt. Now he’s drawn a line in the sand based on the second-round performances by some teams in this year’s playoffs.
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
The trolling seems strong and possibly premature.
But maybe Phil has a point. The Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets — three teams who relied heavily on three-pointers this season — are reeling in their respective second-round matchups. While that may have more to do with their playoff opponents exploiting key weaknesses in their team, it’s no coincidence those three teams are all in the top four spots for three-point attempts this season. The fourth team is Cleveland and they needed a miraculous shot from the best player in the world on Sunday to tie up a contentious series.
Jackson, however, has been stuck evangelizing the obtuse Triangle Offense, railing that young players don’t get it, and ultimately blaming them for not picking up its nuances. It would be one thing if Phil had evolved the tenets of the Triangle to fit today’s game, full of stretch fours and ravaging point guards, but he hasn’t. This last tweet comes off like a wrist-slap against a changing culture rather than shrewd analysis.
It’s possible the concluding word in the tweet, “goink,” is a clever portmanteau of “going” and “boink.” But based off the faulty logic of Phil’s three-point abhorrence, the neologism is probably just the unintentional byproduct after his finger slipped from “g” to “k” on the keyboard.
(Stats via NBA)
