Phil Jackson reportedly felt like Carmelo Anthony was trying to force him out as president of basketball operations for the New York Knicks, and one of the ways Jackson believed Anthony was trying to do that was by manipulating Kristaps Porzingis.
According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, some Knicks officials believed Anthony’s influence over Porzingis was one of the reasons Jackson openly stated he felt Anthony would be better off with another team. One source told Berman that Carmelo — who is not a fan of the triangle offense — was “furious” after Porzingis spoke highly of the system in early March.
“Melo really chewed him out, lit into him,” Berman’s source said.
Less than two weeks after he said he likes the triangle offense and believes the Knicks should have been using it all along, Porzingis seemingly did a complete 180. Derrick Rose referred to the system as “random basketball,” and Porzingis agreed.
“We’re really basic [with] what we do,” he said, per Ian Begley of ESPN.com. “A lot of times it’s — especially one on one — whoever it is, myself, Carmelo [Anthony], Derrick [Rose], Courtney [Lee], we try to make something happen and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. It’s very random.”
Remarks like that from Porzingis led Jackson to believe Anthony was “trying to sabotage him,” according to another of Berman’s league sources.
If there truly was a Phil vs. Carmelo war (and it seems obvious that there was), Porzingis took Anthony’s side. Some of the 21-year-old’s social media activity and the comments his brother/agent made about the way the Knicks were treating their players were clearly aimed at Jackson.
Rather than letting Jackson sell off both Anthony and the team’s most important piece in Porzingis, Dolan chose to let Phil go.
