The Truth About Why New York Knicks Fans Are Frustrated With Phil Jackson
We may not admit it, but the truth about why New York Knicks fans are frustrated with Phil Jackson is quite simple: we want to be involved.
New York Knicks fans are tired of losing. We’re tired of missing the playoffs more times than we’ve made it under James Dolan’s ownership. We’re tired of going 44 years without a championship.
Most recently, we’ve grown tired of the unnecessary drama and the poor representation of Carmelo Anthony—whether manufactured by the media or otherwise.
The truth is: none of this truly encapsulates why Knicks fans are so frustrated with team president Phil Jackson.
Whether we admit it or not, the frustration boils down to one crucial point: we want to be involved.
New York City is unlike any other city in the world—and that rings true in how we view basketball. Fans in New York have a high enough basketball IQ that our complaints aren’t rooted in frustration.
That very tone is undeniably present, but Knicks fans have been willingly suffering for 44 years because of the lingering hope and belief that someone like Phil Jackson could save us.
We’re suffering because New York takes immeasurable pride in being The Mecca of Basketball. We take pride in the fact that the likes of Julius Erving and Bernard King went from New York park legends to pro basketball Hall of Famers.
We take pride in the fact that, even when a title wasn’t ultimately won, the Knicks left it all on the court.
We take pride in the fact that the truth was never hidden from us.
We love the Knicks of the 1990s because they embodied what New York was: a group of blue-collar workers who pushed until they had nothing left to give.
We detest the Knicks of the James Dolan Era because they represent what New York is becoming: high society with little to no value placed on the culture that made the city what it was.
And we’re frustrated with Phil Jackson because we were ecstatic to learn from The Zen Master, yet we’ve been kept in the dark at every turn.
Whether or not we admit it, it’s the persisting truth. And whether or not the media frustrates him, we expect Phil Jackson to push through and continue teaching us.
We may speak out of character when we’re frustrated, but this is all rooted in how much we truly respect Phil Jackson.
Jackson had an otherworldly amount of talent during his coaching career, but he won 11 championships by helping great talent become something more. He connected with his players on emotional, intellectual, and metaphysical levels.
And, just as he’s attempting to do as team president of the Knicks, he took unorthodox routes to that success.
One could fairly argue that Jackson attempted to recreate some of that same Zen Master magic on CBS Sports’ We Need To Talk:
From an outside perspective, however, all fans read when Jackson was coaching were stories in books, and quotes from disgruntled players who were still in the process of understanding The Zen Master’s ways.
Consider Knicks fans to be the new disgruntled players.
Knicks fans don’t want to be the outsiders who struggle to understand the methods to Jackson’s madness. We want to be involved on an almost direct level, even if that’s an unrealistic expectation in 29 other NBA markets.
For all that Jackson has done right and wrong as team president, what truly stings is that The Zen Master hasn’t communicated with his true disciples: us.
The people who cherish the sense of community that comes with living in New York, even as the new wave of project managers, landlords, and socialites attempt to dehumanize the city.
Whether or not we admit it, all we want to do is learn from the man who helped Michael Jordan win six titles when his other four head coaches failed to help him win a single one.
We want to learn from the man who helped Kobe Bryant win five titles when his other nine head coaches failed to help him win a single one.
We want to learn from the man who helped Shaquille O’Neal win three titles when only Pat Riley was able to help him win another.
As summarized by Kobe Bryant in the above video, there’s a method to Jackson’s madness—and we simply want to know what it is.
"“Some people may not understand his methods, but if you’ve played for him, you understand them completely and you know what he’s about. He’s just absolutely brilliant at bringing a group together to accomplish one common goal.”"
We want to learn from the man who was the super-sub for the 1973 NBA champion Knicks. On a team with six Hall of Famers, it was Jackson who was regarded as the ultimate glue guy.
A man who had underwent spinal fusion surgery as recently as 1969-70 was suddenly taking charges and throwing caution to the wind on a championship team in 1972-73.
And that’s where Knicks fans need to do their homework.
The reason Phil Jackson isn’t coaching today isn’t because of his age; it’s because of the fact that he destroyed his back for us.
Just shy of 40 years removed from playing his final game with the Knicks, fans admittedly forget how much Jackson sacrificed for the team he’s now team president of.
Jackson is fair to be frustrated if he feels as though that’s true, but all we want is to support him like he did us—and that requires communication.
29 other executives are expected to talk to the media on a somewhat inconsistent basis—but those executives aren’t Phil freaking Jackson.
If Jackson were to maintain open lines of communication, we as fans would still be frustrated with the team record. We’d still be frustrated with making a grand total of zero playoff appearances in his three years as team president.
We’d still be devastated by going 44 years without a championship.
With open lines of communication, however, we’d at least have an understanding of what The Zen Master is doing to reward his disciples—and I can only hope that readers aren’t getting caught up on a word like, “Disciple,” in a sports setting.
Unfortunately, the way that Jackson leads requires some to be kept in the dark. He expects us to find something within ourselves, just as Red Holzman expected him to do so many years ago.
There simply has to be a common ground that we and Jackson mutually discover as far as communication is concerned.
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That may or may not be a fair request in 29 other markets, but this is New York City. For better and worse, there’s no city like it. And for better and worse, there has never been an NBA executive like Phil Jackson.
All we want is to end our suffering by playing a part in the salvation of the New York Knicks.