A longtime friend of Phil Jackson wrote a column last week that was extremely critical of Carmelo Anthony, leading many to believe the criticism came from Jackson himself. Not so, says Charley Rosen.
Rosen, who has known Jackson for more than 30 years and once worked as his assistant, insisted in a follow-up column that the recent opinions he expressed about Anthony were his own.
So, although I have often been called Phil’s mouthpiece by fans and some in the media, I have never consulted him about the content or general themes of any of the thousands of columns I’ve written for various sports web sites.
NEVER!
The only obvious exceptions being the interviews I conducted with him.
Although some of my opinions may be congruent with Phil’s, they are strictly my own. For better or for worse.
So, then, my views on Carmelo Anthony, for example, come from carefully watching and analyzing his play throughout his career.
I’m not in the business of parroting a party line, or of stroking players with whom I’ve had friendly contact.
As Bill Klem, the famous baseball umpire, once said, “I call ‘em the way I see ‘em.”
Rosen admitted that he has learned much of what he knows about the game of basketball from Jackson but adds that the two have often disagreed on “personnel and specific game plans.” He noted that he and Jackson share visions as to how basketball should be played, which includes “spacing,” “unselfishness” and “playing earnest defense.” The implication is that if Rosen’s thoughts on Carmelo are shared by Jackson, that would be the reason.
Of course, people are going to believe what they want. Heck, Rosen wrote an entire series for ESPN a while back entitled “The Phil Files,” so it’s hard for him to argue that his opinions are totally unbiased. And if Anthony thought they came strictly from Rosen and were not influenced by Jackson, he probably wouldn’t have made these remarks to the media over the weekend.
