ORLANDO, Fla. — Knicks president Phil Jackson and Warriors coach Steve Kerr made a scene outside the Warriors’ locker room late Sunday afternoon at the Garden. The two former Bulls champions chatted for 15 minutes in front of about 30 media members waiting to get into the locker rooms for postgame interviews.
Jackson normally avoids the media like they are infected by a virus. Instead of inviting Kerr to his office alongside the Knicks locker room, Jackson didn’t mind a public viewing.
This was one meeting, however, he should have kept private. With the three-year anniversary of Jackson’s return to the Knicks approaching in less than two weeks, it evoked another reminder of what could have been.
Another bad memory of the first of so many botches he’s made. Another bad optic for the unshaven Zen Master, who watched his club fall 13 games under .500 Sunday, weeks away from missing the playoffs in each of his three full seasons.
His foibles didn’t just start at the trade deadline last month, missing on Ricky Rubio, nor last summer as his four-year, $72 million signing of Joakim Noah has a chance to wreck the club’s salary cap.
As he left the Jackson scrum Sunday, Kerr said, “It’s hard for anybody. A competitor like Phil — Phil is a fierce competitor — so losing eats competitors up.”
Who knows what would have happened had Jackson closed the deal with Kerr before the Warriors were eliminated from the 2014 playoffs in the first round by the Clippers? Kerr gave Jackson a verbal commitment, but he and his agent at the time, former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, held out for a more substantial offer than the initial three-year, $9 million promise.
Once the Warriors got in the game after firing Mark Jackson, it was over. The Warriors blew Kerr away and Phil Jackson allowed him to escape. Perhaps fueled by his own arrogance, Jackson figured he’d just get another triangle coach who would flourish under his stewardship.
From the start of his presidency, Jackson couldn’t get it done. When Chasson Randle played last week in Orlando, it marked the 46th player to take the court for the Knicks during Jackson’s tenure. That doesn’t include Lamar Odom, Jackson’s very first signing on the last day of the 2013-14 season.
Jackson has built three almost entirely different clubs — each of them awful. The only team that was actually competitive was the one he inherited that fell one game short of the 2014 playoffs after a big finish under Mike Woodson, whom he couldn’t fire fast enough. With James Dolan’s recent vote of confidence, Jackson will be at it again this July.
In Jackson confidant Charley Rosen’s latest online piece, he wrote, “Phil Jackson will have his phone stuck to his ear and lots of under-the-cap money to spend.”
Again.