New York Knicks president Phil Jackson is taking absolutely no prisoners when it comes to ex-Knicks. After recently calling out J.R Smith for his “delinquent behavior”, now the face of Primo Pasta, Andrea Bargnani, is the object of the Zen Master’s ire.
For the final edition of his Phil Jackson chronicles, which was published on Monday, ESPN’s Charley Rosen asked the 69-year-old to provide assessments of every player on the Knicks roster in 2014-15. Jackson was blunt, to say the absolute least, and most notable was his critique of Bargnani, who signed with the Brooklyn Nets this offseason:
AB was and still is a big tease. When he was injured he refused to do simple non-contact activities like dummy our offense in practice. He seemed to be a malingerer and this had a bad effect on the team, and also on the way the Knicks fans reacted to him. When he was on the court, he had a hard time staying intense, didn’t hustle back in offense-to-defense transition, wasn’t active enough in defending screen-rolls. Still, his offense is perfectly suited to the triangle because he really doesn’t have to work very hard to get shots. He’s another guy we renounced, but whether we can agree on financial terms for his return, or he winds up someplace else, AB will always be somewhat of an enigma.
Not exactly the highest praise for a player that the Knicks surrendered a first-round pick and two second-round picks in order to acquire. Still, I can’t say I’m all that surprised by Phil’s scathing remarks about Bargs. The Italian’s laziness and complete failure to live up to his billing as a former No. 1 overall pick have been well-documented, particularly in his Toronto days.
The seven-footer often looks like a cat chasing a laser dot on defense, barfs up awful, off-balance shots on offense, and posts completely pitiful rebounding totals relative to his size. In two seasons with the Knicks, Bargnani was often injured, playing in just 71 combined games. And now according to Jackson, he was as detrimental to the team off the court as he was on the court (no small feat with his mind-numbing -17.5 net rating last season).
Jackson is probably ecstatic to be done paying for the sins of his predecessor, Glen Grunwald, who acquired Bargnani, as the team moves forward into a future without the infamous No. 77.
While Bargnani is now a figment of the Knicks’ past, the real enigma facing Phil now is just how far he goes building a future around 31-year-old Carmelo Anthony.
H/T CBS Sports
