The Knicks are bad. This may come as a shock to you if you have not watched NBA basketball since the 1990s, but it’s true. The Knicks are bad and have been for years, despite Phil Jackson and his championship pedigree taking over as the President of Basketball Operations in 2014.
Jackson was supposed to be the savior of the Knicks and build a championship contender, but instead he built an ill-fitting roster around Carmelo Anthony. Then, finally realizing this wasn’t working, tried to run Anthony out of town at this year’s trade deadline but failed because Anthony has a full no-trade clause that – this is always my favorite part – Jackson gave to him.
For a long time, Jackson was the NBA’s Teflon Don. He has 11 championship rings, which made him immune to criticism. Well, that was as a coach, but as an executive he’s fair game, even for his former players.
Scottie Pippen joined Rachel Nichols on ESPN’s “The Jump” on Thursday, and when the topic of the Knicks being eliminated from the playoffs came up, he had no problems blaming the Knicks problems squarely on the coach that guided his Bulls to six NBA titles.
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“To be honest with you, I’m going to have to at my old coach Phil Jackson,” Pippen said. “I think he just hasn’t put the right pieces on the floor. I give a lot of credit to Carmelo, who’s been very professional at getting through this 82 game season and now he’s being benched to some degree. But this team just really hasn’t had it. And they haven’t had it since Phil Jackson landed there. There’s not been any upside to think the New York Knicks was going to be a contender. I feel bad for Carmelo. Having to go through this and having to deal with it, but he got a great contract so I’m sure he has no complaints.”
The best part of the whole thing is Tracy McGrady being so excited about Pippen going in on Jackson that he couldn’t help but yell, “Yes, Pip!” in the middle of Pippen’s comment. While it’s surprising to see Pippen call out Jackson like this, nothing he said is wrong and most Knicks fans would probably agree with his assessment of the situation. That said, this might make the next Bulls’ reunion a little awkward.
