If Phil Jackson is the Knicks messiah, it looks like he’s only picking from amongst his own disciples as the rock upon which to build his basketball church.
According to a report by Marc Berman of the New York Post on Sunday, Jackson has spoken to Warriors assistant Luke Walton about the Knicks head coaching position.
Walton, 36, served as Golden State’s interim head coach this season while Steve Kerr recovered from back surgery complications and led Golden State to a 39-4 start. Prior to that, he was coached by Jackson for seven seasons on the Lakers as a player, thus gaining a lot of experience with the triangle offense.
Jackson fired one of his pupils, Derek Fisher, from New York’s head coaching post in February, and proceeded to name another one of them, Kurt Rambis, as interim only to see Rambis do even worse. Still, Jackson inexplicably seems sold on the idea of Rambis as the Knicks’ permanent head coach, but he could be swayed if yet another one of his hardwood apostles in Walton becomes available for hire.
Walton has also drawn interest from both the Suns and the Lakers, meaning that Jackson may have to engage in a bidding war to get his guy back. It’s also entirely possible that Walton decides to stay in Golden State with uncertainty over Kerr’s long-term health and the Dubs widely favored to repeat as back-to-back champions this June.
The Knicks head coaching search is already said to be causing some discord within the organization. Hopefully, adding Walton’s name to the mix doesn’t serve to complicate matters even further.
H/T theScore
