Phil Jackson has decided to coach the Knicks…at least for a couple of days.The Knicks embattled team president is running a clandestine mini-camp this week in New York with a handful of current players, the Daily News has learned. According to a league source, the two practices are being described as a "triangle seminar" where Jackson and interim head coach Kurt Rambis will watch film and continue teaching the Knicks an offense that Jackson is intent on running despite many of the player's reluctance to embrace the antiquated system.
Not every player will attend the camp. It is unclear if Carmelo Anthony, who did not sound pleased following his exit meeting with Jackson last week, will participate. Newly signed Tony Wroten is expected to attend along with rookies Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant as well as Langston Galloway and Jose Calderon.
That Jackson is running the camp is further proof that he is not budging from his belief that the best and only system for the Knicks to run is the triangle. Rambis' inclusion also bodes well for the coach who is Jackson's preferred choice to be named full-time coach.
And despite Jackson reaching out to Luke Walton and reportedly being interested in David Blatt, it is clear that whoever he hires as coach will run the offense that he is teaching the players this week.
Last summer, Jackson and Derek Fisher were at odds over the triangle with Fisher wanting to tweak the system and run more pick and rolls early in the offense. Jackson, however, insisted on running the team his way and eventually fired Fisher. Jackson even admitted that Fisher was not following the advice of two assistant coaches that Jackson had hired to help him run the triangle, Rambis and Jim Cleamons.
It was a stunning admission since it is rare for any coach, even a second year head coach, to be forced to follow the advice of his assistant coaches. Rambis was originally brought into to teach the offense but he and Fisher were at odds over how the team should be run.
Although the Knicks were 22-22 at one point last season under Fisher and despite Rambis having a lower winning percentage than Fisher, Jackson praised his long-time friend for being committed to the triangle.
Kurt Rambis is also attending the mini-camp, which bodes well for the interim coach.
"They had an immersion in the triangle," Jackson said last week. "When Kurt started coaching the team they started executing it with more structure. We saw some progress. But we have to make the next step. We have a limited amount of resource that we can deal with. If you're in an arms races and you go out and get a hydrogen bomb and it may not be enough and you got to go plutonium.
"It's great if you get in an arms race. We're not in an arms race. We're in a skills race. So that's what we're working toward: getting players skilled enough to perform in this game. Unfortunately we can't go out and the Lakers and some other team may have $60 million to chase with. That's not where we're at. We're about getting quality skill players."
Jackson became overly sensitive when reporters asked him to respond to critics of the triangle.
"There are critics? Who are these people? Why would people even say that?" he said. "Do they have 11 championships to show you when they talk about that?"
It was the first sign that Jackson was beginning to crack under the pressure of 49-115 record over two years. He also seemed to be on edge and a little off when he responded to reports on Monday that he had spoken with Walton about the Knicks head coaching job and that Walton, as the Daily News reported, was not interested in the position as of now.
Jackson denied that he had offered the job to anyone and that no one has turned him down. Two problems: no one reported that Jackson offered the job to Walton or that Walton gave him a flat out no. By noon Monday, ESPN confirmed the Daily News report by claiming that Jackson had told Knick employees that he expected Walton to remain with the Golden State Warriors.
One reason many coaches are turned off by the Knicks job, despite the prestige and financial windfall, is that they don't want a job where Jackson is coaching the team from the 10th row. And if Jackson demands that any coach inherits Rambis, that could be awkward since Fisher was forced to hire Rambis, who eventually replaced him.
But it's clear that Jackson is more comfortable coaching than scouting and talking to agents of players. That may be another reason he's running the camp: to satisfy his coaching pang. And his ego.
