Players union head Michele Roberts has issued a statement calling Phil Jackson’s comments about Carmelo Anthony in Friday’s press conference “inappropriate,” tweets Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated.
The union objected to Jackson saying that Anthony would be “better off somewhere else” next season. Anthony remains under contract with the Knicks for two more years, although he has an early termination option for 2018/19.
“We voiced with the Commissioner today our view on the inappropriate comments by Knicks President Phil Jackson,” Roberts’ statement read. “If players cannot, under threat of league discipline, speak openly about their desire to be employed elsewhere, we expect management to adhere to the same standards. The door swings both ways when it comes to demonstrating loyalty and respect.”
I back the Players Union 100% on this one. Phil Jackson has no idea what he is doing and it is killing the Knicks.
Except it doesn’t swing both ways unless it’s explicitly written that way in the CBA… Let’s face it, without Jackson nobody would even be talking about the Knicks any time soon. He’s doing his job.
Are you high?
Tell me specifically what you think the President of Basketball Operations job entails and specifically how Phil is doing it.
There must be something in the air, where 70 year old men can’t conform their behavior to societal norms. Phil Jackson is a flawed executive, He is anachronism from days gone by. The Knick Owner should be sued for malpractice. 43 Years of waiting on a winner. Get ready to wait another two years in the wilderness. Thanks Big Chief Triangle, who has yet to find a point guard, a coach he can work with, or harvest a competitive roster. By the way, would Pat Riley have signed Joachim Noah for $72MM? Hell No!!
#FIREPHILJACKSON
Phil has issues
First : Every organization will have personnel issues from time to time. The guy at the top should never air them out publicly. Riley has had major issues with James, Bosh and Wade and plenty of reasons to go public. Never happened. That is why players respect the Heat as a class organization and why a bunch of misfits and castoffs pulled it together and posted one the biggest turnaround seasons in league history. No pointing fingers, coaching to players strengths, always upbeat, plenty of praise for player improvement despite losses and no meddling from the front office with the coaches decisions. It works in every business including pro sports.
So players can criticize coaches ,trainers and staff but if an owner does it hmmm, I thought these guys were hard
It’s not the criticism. He said he wants Anthony to leave. It’s effectively tampering, but in reverse.
Agreed Phil is obsessed with the Triangle. It is a great system when executed properly by the right players. I saw a decade in Chicago and took it for granted until they broke up the team and I saw a bunch of inexperienced players try to execute it. I could literally point out the spot on the floor where someone should be standing and wasn’t – you could see its brilliance in its absence. I guess that Nix fans haven’t ever seen it properly executed, and I too would be skeptical and/or angry.
However, it is not ‘tampering’ or anything like it, there is nothing wrong with a GM saying that a player is not right for the current situation, EXCEPT that it lowers that player’s value on the market — which is exactly the opposite of what a good executive would do.
I think Phil is a genius as a coach, not so much as an executive, and he should have been released. I think he should never have re-signed Carmelo, but hindsight is 20/20. He believed that he could sell Melo on the Triangle the way he sold Jordan on it. Difference here is that Jordan’s contract at the time they built the team which executed the Triangle was not crippling the way Carmelo’s is – Jordan was still on a rookie deal at the time.
Nix prior management mortgaged the future (the same way Nets did BTW) and now has little ability to build through draft picks. Phil has now devalued the best trade piece that might get them some picks, and for that reason alone he should be fired, if not for letting Carmelo have a no-trade with no team option in the first place.
Nix fans: look at the bright side, at least you will get a high pick this year and Phil isn’t as bad as Isaiah Thomas. (not yet, anyway).