Phil Jackson feels he can empathize with President Donald Trump over the way both of them were targeted by the media.
Jackson, 75, joined Coby Karl’s “The Curious Leader” podcast for an interview published on Thursday. In the interview, the 11-time NBA champion head coach discussed where his tenure as New York Knicks president went wrong.
Jackson cited various factors that went against him, including the media, fans, and star player Carmelo Anthony.
Jackson told Karl that he believes he was fighting a major uphill battle because the media was so anti-Knicks, they were looking for every reason possible to make him and the team look bad.
Jackson said the media “was decidedly against the organization and they were looking for whatever they can do to throw aspersions.”
“I kind of understand what Trump had to live with probably for his first 3.5 years in office with the media,” Jackson said, via the New York Daily News.
The media displayed a heavy anti-Trump bias from the day the president was elected in 2016 and often misquoted him, omitted context or twisted his words, or ran inflammatory headlines. They found the negative in almost every story and highlighted that. Jackson feels that is exactly what happened with him as Knicks president.
Jackson says that he believes team owner James Dolan recognized that the media had sided with Anthony in his dispute with the team and that made things difficult for Jackson.
“I think that [Dolan] felt like I was facing too big of an uphill climb and relieved me of the job because he just saw the media was going to be backing Carmelo in this situation,” Jackson said. “And I was going to be the guy taking the lumps.”
Jackson took over as the Knicks’ president after the 2013-2014 season and lasted three years until 2017. Jackson’s best move was drafting Kristaps Porzingis, who later demanded a trade from the team. His biggest mistake was hiring Derek Fisher, who embarrassed himself as the head coach.
One of the biggest problems for the Knicks has been Dolan. He has such a contentious relationship with the media and fans that it makes it extremely difficult for anyone to try and survive in that environment.
Several years later, the Knicks finally have a .500 team and look to be somewhat respectable for the first time since 2012-2013.
