- 1,880
- 10
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2002
Hell no to Beasley.Like his game, but no way he keeps his head straight in New York.
let this thread die (NYK)
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by pr0phecy718,
- Start date
- 3,595
- 12
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
- 23,769
- 10,529
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2011
SuperCoolBeas and Lin would kill the club scene but I don't think it'd be the best combo on the court.
- 30,695
- 5,718
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2002
Something about that chick next to Spike...
- 3,595
- 12
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
[h1]Knicks too busy putting on show to give Phil Jackson a call[/h1] By Ken Berger | CBSSports.com NBA Insider Follow Ken
[table][tr][td]
LOS ANGELES -- As the Lakers teetered on the brink of elimination and collapse last week, and while the Clippers were trying -- but ultimately failing -- to choke away a 3-1 lead in their fifth playoff appearance since moving to Southern California, Phil Jackson was trading in his crutches for a cane and walking a mile a day.
For Jackson, the 11-time NBA champion and 66-year-old philosopher, his focus and fury have been trained on one goal. It's a long road back to health and youthfulness for Jackson, a road that he hopes leads him to, of all places, a tennis court by the end of the summer.
That's right, the former Lakers coach with the fused spine, artificial hips and newly replaced knee is feeling so good, he expects to be stroking forehands and backhands -- and, by those, we don't mean he'll be slapping Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum around in the hopes of waking them up.
[table][tr][td]
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
[/td][/tr][tr][td]
[/td][/tr][/table]
Jackson has not received a single phone call from an NBA team looking for a coach. People close to the former Bulls and Lakers coach continue to say he "has the itch," and his longtime girlfriend, Jeanie Buss, said in an L.A. radio interview Friday, "He's got his energy back."
But so far, not a whisper. Not an email. Not a text message, and certainly, not a phone call.
Rehabbing in Los Angeles since undergoing knee replacement surgery in late March, Jackson can only sit back and hear his name, age, health and accomplishments disparaged. He's too old. Afraid to coach without Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. A gold digger. A championship cherry-picker who would only return to the NBA sidelines to coach a ready-made champion -- or, for the paycheck.
"It hurts," a Jackson confidante told me recently. "People need to know he is not dead, and he is not 70."
Yes, commentators dismiss Jackson as a viable head coaching candidate because he's "70 years old," when Jackson is not. Recent leaks out of Madison Square Garden painted the public push for Jackson to coach the Knicks as a scheme right out of Larry Brown's playbook. The Knicks, according to the spin machine, aren't going to be used as an ATM by another aging coach looking to pad his retirement fortune.
As if Jackson, who played for the Knicks' last championship team in 1973, needs the Knicks' money more than the Knicks need his coaching. Never mind the fact that Jackson almost certainly wouldn't touch the roiling cauldron of dysfunction that is Madison Square Garden with his walking cane. The fact that the Knicks knew this -- knew their organization is so fraught with paranoia and pettiness that the greatest coach alive wouldn't roam the sidelines with somebody else's legs -- says all you need to know.
Not only have the Knicks failed to place a call to Jackson or his agent, Todd Musburger, they have zeroed in on interim coach Mike Woodson to serve as the latest pawn in Creative Artists Agency's top-to-bottom takeover of the team. So when it was revealed last week that Woodson had dumped his agents, the father-son team of Joe and Keith Glass, at the team's request, Knicks fans had the only explanation they needed for why Jackson will, for the time being, remain focused on reviving his tennis game.
Could you imagine Jackson, a proud former Knick with more championship rings than fingers, dancing do-si-do with the political charlatans and Hollywood operatives who are calling the shots at MSG? In the gruff parlance of Jackson, it's a "politics situation" that is beneath him.
Though if you're the Knicks, who recently ended the longest playoff losing streak in NBA history and are set to reward the coach for the solitary win that did it -- after they've corrupted his allegiances, mind you -- wouldn't at least a phone conversation with the most decorated coach in NBA history behoove you?
Instead, Jackson is painted as old and greedy and Woodson responds "how high" when instructed to jump. Once Woodson switches his representation to CAA, the agency will control the team's best player, the head coach and front-office executives Allan Houston and Mark Warkentien -- not to mention marketing and sponsorship partners and musical artists who can fill the Garden for important concert dates that otherwise might have gone to the spectacular new arena nearing completion in Brooklyn for the Nets.
Let's not be naïve about what the Garden is running now. It isn't a basketball team, but a movie production. If you want Tom Cruise, you have to take Cameron Diaz, too. And while we're at it, we've got the director and production company lined up. One-stop shopping. It'll be a great show, a smash hit, and everybody will make lots of money. Everyone will "win," without actually winning anything.
Championships? Who needs championships when you have this much power and money all flowing in the same direction? After landing CAA client Carmelo Anthony last season, the team's gate receipts went right through the Garden's iconic, pinwheel roof this past season, thanks in part to the emergence of Jeremy Lin, and oh yeah, a 49 percent increase in average ticket prices. The most expensive seats in the NBA -- more than double the league average -- will cost a comparatively modest 4.9 percent more next season. And if you don't think Woodson roaming the sidelines with his bemused scowl, immaculate goatee and Tone Loc voice will prevent people from paying those prices, think again.
Again, Phil who?
In September 2010, the Knicks signed a 10-year, $300 million marketing and sponsorship deal with JP Morgan Chase. Annually, that's more money than each of the 30 NBA teams reaps from the NBA's national broadcast rights agreements with ABC/ESPN and Turner. Revenue sharing, shmevenue sharing. The revenues from a couple of concert dates with CAA client Bruce Springsteen would just about cover Jackson's salary, if only the Knicks would call -- and if only the Zen Master would listen.
All the while, Jackson keeps chugging along, a mile a day on that treadmill, as he inches ever closer to a return to the court. For now, that return is slated only for a tennis court, but you never know.
Jackson has recently confided in a close associate that he won't know if he'd be interested in the Knicks' job -- or any other, for that matter -- until the opportunity were presented to him. If the Knicks were interested in something other than putting on a good show, they'd stop playing games, pick up the phone and make that presentation. Maybe someone at CAA knows someone who knows someone who actually knows something about winning.
- 3,595
- 12
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
- 8,392
- 268
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2001
Someone better make a $*@!@* call. I dont even care if he declines. But dont just sit there and not even ask the man.
- 26,471
- 3,561
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- 3,595
- 12
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
Yes men only
- 8,392
- 268
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2001
Yea I was gonna say that was prolly why no1 has called him. Phil would tell Dolan to sit down if he tried to tell him what rotations to run, word to the Phil/Dantoni gif.
yeeupp
Banned
- 5,697
- 166
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
Beasley + Jr Smith & Melo ?
- 74,754
- 24,151
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
Chuck city
I'm good on Phil. Just seems too much like Larry Brown 2.0 give me another year of Woodson (unless we could get Monty Williams) and see what happens next year.
I'm good on Phil. Just seems too much like Larry Brown 2.0 give me another year of Woodson (unless we could get Monty Williams) and see what happens next year.
- 43,203
- 28,377
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2003
- 30,695
- 5,718
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2002
- 8,627
- 1,483
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2005
Cliffs of the birds rights article? I dont know how I can continue to be a fan of this franchise if they dont call Phil. But with Woodson dropping his agent, the job is all but his anyway.
Why does no one talk about Doc Rivers though ??? Hes the overall (resume, age) best coach that will be available
Why does no one talk about Doc Rivers though ??? Hes the overall (resume, age) best coach that will be available
- 43,203
- 28,377
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2003
We always complain about how this organization is always looking to make the big splash move and not worry about team chemistry. Mike Woodson did a great job. I'd be fine if we just resign him.
Or course you have to kick the tires on Phil, which I'm sure they will if they haven't already, but I'm fine with keeping this team as on tact a possible and allowing them to grow together.
Or course you have to kick the tires on Phil, which I'm sure they will if they haven't already, but I'm fine with keeping this team as on tact a possible and allowing them to grow together.
|A-Man|
formerly atgd7154xbbxmz
- 17,340
- 2,011
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2011
Eh, what was Zeke then? Master manipulator? Not to mention bothering to hire Larry Brown and Donnie.
I figure at some point a call will be made to Phil.
I expect since the job is his, Woodson to be fired at the end of the year if we struggle next season though.
- 43,203
- 28,377
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2003
The union is challenging whether or not a player keeps their bird rights if claimed off waivers.
Basically, if the union gets their way, we'll be able to resign both Lin and Novak without worrying about our cap number and still have the midlevel ($5 million) and bi-annual ($2.5 million) exceptions to play with.
- 8,627
- 1,483
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2005
Now I get the
- 26,024
- 19,347
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2003
i hate fields but i rather bring him back instead of novak... if novak is not open he is useless... fields at least plays decent defense, rebounds and gets to the basket... he needs to work on his jumper though
- 10,791
- 932
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2003
No. Hell no. We can find literally a hundred players who can provide what Landry does. A pure shooting 3 point bomber like Novak is not easy to come by.
- 21,800
- 3,553
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2010
yeeupp
Banned
- 5,697
- 166
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
[h3]Irving, Lin Among Players Named To U.S. Select Team[/h3]
May 14, 2012 11:52 PM EDT
Kyrie Irving and Jeremy Lin have been named to the USA select team, which will practice against the U.S. Olympic team as it prepares for the London games.
The select team also will include DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, DeMar DeRozan, Ryan Anderson, Paul George, Taj Gibson, Klay Thompson, DeJuan Blair, Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward.
I approve of this, players always come back better than they were
- 15,661
- 4,793
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2008
Even if there's the possibility it turns into the Larry Brown situation how you or anyone else can be OK with passing on Phil Jackson is wild.Originally Posted by JohnnyRedStorm
Chuck city
I'm good on Phil. Just seems too much like Larry Brown 2.0 give me another year of Woodson (unless we could get Monty Williams) and see what happens next year.
