Since coming on board as the president of the New York Knicks, Phil Jackson has not had many bright spots during his tenure. The team has struggled on the court, and it appears as though they will miss the playoffs for the third straight season. Jackson even fired 2nd year head coach Derek Fisher halfway through this season and has Kurt Rambis filling in as the interim coach.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne delved into the Knicks coaching woes in a recent story and the idea of Jackson coaching home games next season, while Rambis coaches road games was a scenario that was discussed. When asked about the possibility Jackson stepping onto the court to in a coaching capacity, Knicks star Carmelo Anthony was completely against it.
No. No. No. I don’t think that should be accepted. I wouldn’t accept that if that was the case. Phil is cool man. He don’t need to be on the sidelines no more. He put so many years into this game. He’s cool. He don’t need to be on the sideline.
I don’t think he’s thinking about coming back down on the sideline. I hope not. Let him ride on out. Let him sit out and be the president.
The franchise will have a coaching vacancy at the end of the season and Jackson has gone on record saying that he believes Rambis is fully capable of taking the Knicks where they need to be. On the other hand, Anthony feels Rambis should be given the opportunity to win the job but also believes that Jackson should be looking into other possibilities.
I think you consider Kurt at that job. He brought Kurt here for that reason — if anything was to happen and the situation is here for him now,” Anthony said. “I think it’s just more of seeing how Kurt handles the situation right now, how the team does, how the team responds to Kurt. But I think you still have to at least to other candidates out there.
