Phil Jackson Getting the Boot Is Great, But the Knicks Will Forever Be a Dumpster Fire

The Knicks are parting ways with Phil Jackson but the organization will continue to be the one of the NBA's worst because of who is still running the show.

Phil Jackson Knicks Twolves 2017
USA Today Sports

New York Knicks general manager Phil Jackson looks on during a stop in play against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden.

Phil Jackson Knicks Twolves 2017

No Knicks fans will shed any tears over the ouster of team president Phil Jackson because to feel any sympathy for him would be nothing short of psychotic.

Because after a truly awful three years of work—and depending on how closely you’ve been following Jackson’s tenure with the Knicks, I use the term “work” in only the loosest of manners—Jackson walks away with $60 million, his sterling coaching reputation still intact, and leaves somebody else to deal with the mess that is the NBA’s most dysfunctional franchise.

Of course, Jackson’s one of the biggest reasons why the Knicks are the messiest of messes in 2017. Going 80-166 during his tenure at the Garden, Jackson made terrible personnel decisions, starting with the re-signing of Carmelo Anthony and granting him a no-trade clause back in 2014. Then there was the awful trade with Cleveland, the Joakim Noah free agent signing, and, probably most annoyingly, his insistence that a modern NBA team run his antiquated triangle that was only successful back in the ‘90s and early 2000s with multiple Hall of Famers. His most recent transgression? As Jay Williams first told us last week, “falling in and out of sleep” while scouting a draft pick.

I always got the feeling that Jackson probably spent his time in New York wishing he could have been on the sideline instead of the stands because he’s a coach. He’s not an executive, but kudos to him for hoodwinking Knicks owner James Dolan into thinking he was one. With his body breaking down, Jackson never could commit to 82 games on the bench and the demanding travel of an NBA season, so he gave being an executive a shot for the first time after a mutual pal of Dolan and Jackson put the two together. The rest is (awful, forgettable) history.

Dolan offered Jackson a ton of cash back in March of 2014 despite the fact the guy who won 11 rings as a coach had never put together a roster. Yes, there are plenty of examples of legends getting shots to call the shots with little or no experience, but were any of them blatantly masquerading as a GM that really wanted to coach and show all those analytical nerds that his way of basketball was superior to theirs?

When things started going south with the Knicks—and it didn’t take long—Jackson never blamed himself. He became the first executive in modern sports history to subtweet his star player. He nearly traded Kristaps Porzingis, basically the only good thing he did during his tenure, because the kid skipped an exit meeting.

Jackson is gone. And he deserved to be shown the door. But every Knicks fan knows the real problem that plagues the organization isn’t going anywhere. Getting rid of Jackson is like taking an aspirin to treat your brain tumor. The Knicks are terminally ill because James Dolan, one of the worst owners in all of professional sports, is still signing the checks. He’s the one responsible for an atmosphere of paranoia permeating Madison Square Garden, infecting everyone from his direct underlings to the players themselves. Dolan is the man who meddles in areas he has no business meddling. He’s the guy who ridiculously accuses a beloved former player, Charles Oakley, of having anger and substance abuse problems. He’s the guy who fires employees because they asked to see his identification, wrote a song about Trayvon Martin, and called a season ticket holder an “asshole” because he had the audacity to yell at him to sell the team.

James Dolan Carmelo Anthony Knicks Spurs 2017

The bottom line is the Knicks are screwed for as long as Dolan is running the joint. The joy of Jackson’s ouster will last as long as it takes for Dolan to make another truly awful decision, like turning to his trusted buddy and former public enemy No. 1 for Knicks supporters, Isiah Lord Thomas. We’d like to think the NBA would say something to Dolan and stop him in his tracks if word got out that he was seriously considering having the president of the WNBA’s Liberty run the Knicks again. But with Dolan, all bets are off. And it’s been reported that Thomas has continued to quietly consult with Dolan for years.

But maybe Dolan will have an epiphany one of these days and actually hire an individual with a track record as a successful basketball executive, like he once did with Donnie Walsh, and not run him out of town after a few seasons. Maybe he’ll quit interfering with the Knicks’ day-to-day operations—like he does with the Rangers, who enjoy success—and stop embarrassing himself and the organization.

I wouldn’t bet on it. For as incompetent as Jackson proved to be as the Knicks president, the only person who was a bigger joke the past three seasons at Madison Square Garden is the man whose crowning achievement is breaking the world record for most kazoos played simultaneously. Let the dumpster fire burn. 

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