Ever since he took over the job as president of the New York Knicks, many have wondered whether Phil Jackson would ever step down from the executive’s office to coach the team. It seems like there is some chatter of that actually happening.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne wrote a story on the Knicks and Phil Jackson that published Monday. The story talks about Derek Fisher’s tenure with the Knicks and about Jackson. Shelburne also drops a nugget that there is talk about Jackson potentially offering to coach the Knicks next season in tandem with Kurt Rambis.
From Shelburne’s article:
There’s even talk Jackson could offer to coach home games next season, with Rambis coaching the road games. It’s an offer the late Lakers owner Jerry Buss once flatly rejected, but it could be an interesting compromise to hiring Rambis as the head coach next season.
Rambis was named interim head coach last month after Fisher was fired in early February. Shelburne says that the Zen Master has been more involved with the team since Rambis took over as he has felt comfortable doing so (he tried to be hands-off with Fisher and allow the former point guard to develop his own coaching style). Rambis has only led the Knicks to a 5-9 record, faring similarly as Fisher, who went 23-31 before being canned.
Shelburne also addresses the talk that Jeanie Buss may want to bring Phil back to the Lakers as the team’s coach. A recent report said there was a lot of talk that Jackson would eventually return to LA, but Shelburne says both teams believe that is “unlikely” to happen. That shouldn’t be a huge surprise considering Jeanie said as much in February.
Jackson, an 11-time NBA champion, is considered the greatest coach in league history. He hasn’t coached since leading the Lakers to a 57-25 season in 2010-2011, though there was talk of him returning to take over the Lakers from Mike Brown in 2012 before Mike D’Antoni was surprisingly hired by Jim Buss.
