The New York Knicks have long been attempting to build a contender in a toxic environment. In 2017-18, the Knicks are thriving in a healthier domain.
The New York Knicks are a franchise unlike any other in the world of professional sports. New York City is The Mecca of Basketball, Madison Square Garden is the world’s most famous arena, and almost every front office regime and franchise player of the James Dolan era has found a way to bring drama to center stage.
Few chapters in Knicks history have contributed more to that blend of dysfunction and excitement than the public feud between Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson.
While Anthony’s tenure predated Jackson’s, three of his seven seasons with the Knicks were spent with The Zen Master as team president. Although it started out as a promising situation, it devolved into a bottomless well of distractions that players and coaches failed to overcome.
According to Ian Begley of ESPN New York, an anonymous team source described the organization as, “Lighter,” without the burden of the Jackson-Anthony feud.
"“Everyone just seems a little lighter,” one team source said. “The drama Phil created with Carmelo really affected the team and the joy factor,” said another source with knowledge of the Carmelo-Phil dynamic."
Regardless of whom you believe to be at fault, there’s no denying that the feud between Anthony and Jackson hurt the on-court product.
One could argue that Anthony turned in at least six star-caliber seasons during his time with the Knicks. One could also praise Jackson for acquiring the likes of Kristaps Porzingis, Frank Ntilikina, Willy Hernangomez, Courtney Lee, Lance Thomas, and Kyle O’Quinn.
Both excelled in certain areas of their jobs and fell short of expectations in others, but nothing hurt the Knicks more than the vicious nature of their feud.
It ultimately reached a point where the locker room became divided—a set of circumstances that even alienated Kristaps Porzingis from the man who drafted him.
As Begley wrote in his remarkable article, Jackson wanted Anthony out of New York as early as 2015. What transpired from there were a string of incidents that separated the players and the front office, including Jackson’s constructive—and public—criticism of Anthony’s need to make quicker decisions on the court.
Anthony and Jackson had a face-to-face meeting to smooth things over, but Begley reports that the encounter did nothing but exacerbate the already existing issues.
"According to people familiar with the dynamic, the meeting also had a detrimental impact on the Knicks. The club won the night after but lost 23 of its next 31 games as the season went off the rails. “It just caused so much unnecessary drama for the team. It wore on them,” one team source said of the episode. “At that point, everyone could feel Phil trying to push Carmelo out.”"
Without having to worry about what’s happening off the court, the Knicks have been able to focus 100 percent of their energy on what’s occurring on it.
After two decades of instability and a public feud that dominated headlines for the better part of three seasons, first-year general manager Scott Perry is showing the Knicks how to operate like a normal NBA organization. Normal may have a negative connotation in some circles, but it’s exactly what the Knicks have needed.
That’s proving no more true than during the first season since the franchise parted ways with both the team president and the franchise player.
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The New York Knicks will always have a rare mystique, but the best thing that’s happened to this organization is that it’s finally being run like a normal NBA franchise.