New York Knicks: Jeff Hornacek calls his run ‘a great experience’

Jeff Hornacek looked back at his time as head coach of the New York Knicks.

The last hire of the Phil Jackson era, Jeff Hornacek became the New York Knicks head coach in the spring of 2016. He lasted until April 2018, before the new regime, helmed by Steve Mills and Scott Perry, made a change.

Hornacek had a brief chance to oversee this team, with frequent adjustments in the front office and roster. Problems arose along the way, so it was not the easiest of tenures, either.

Well, 10 months after the firing, the former NBA Coach of the Year spoke out about his Knicks tenure on The Woj Pod with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Despite frequent personnel changes, exiling a player and the Kristaps Porzingis injury that spiraled the 2017-18 Knicks, Hornacek still called this a “great experience:”

However, that led to the eye-opening topics of his time in New York, including the use of Jackson’s famed triangle offense:

"“We were trying to find that bridge — that happy medium of “Hey, we still know the triangle stuff works and won championships. It’s a new, different type of game now. We have a guy in Carmelo [Anthony], that’s very good at the elbow area. We have [Kristaps] Porzingis that’s very good spot at that spot as a young guy.“But, again, I think it goes back to having all five guys that understand all the little things. There were times when guys were open but they weren’t ready to make that pass and they didn’t see it. It was a matter of getting enough guys that knew the ins and outs of the reads.”"

Jackson’s triangle never worked with Hornacek or his predecessor, Derek Fisher. While, as alluded to, the Knicks had a few quality players to run it, gone were the days of Michael Jorda, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal as those dominating this offense and turning it into 11 championships combined.

There were also qualms of Jackson interfering in practice which, during the podcast, Wojnarowski noted how players were upset by this. Hornacek seemed to differ:

"Maybe players thought that. For me, it’s not like that happened every day. It probably happened twice, three times, maybe, during the year. And here you are with a guy that’s won nine championships, and he sees a little bit of something we can do better in the triangle, We talked all the time. He’s a coach at heart."

Hornacek said he welcomed input from Jackson.

Much was made of this offense during Jackson’s time, and Hornacek noted he went to his own scheme once the front office change was made in the summer of 2017, when Perry became the general manager and Mills the president of basketball operations.

Among other topics was his playing career, Kristaps Porzingis and wanting to coach again.

Hornacek had adversity built from the start and never found a way to escape it, lasting just two years. Maybe that was due to Perry and Mills desiring their own guy as head coach, but the pieces frequently moved around the former NBA veteran, including the Carmelo Anthony trade and Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr.’s injuries happening within days of each other in 2017-18.

Once those players went down, it doomed the rest of the season and gave the front office greater reason to move in another direction.

Hornacek expressed little, if any, ill will towards the New York Knicks for his stint. He spoke out, can move on and work towards another coaching gig, wherever that may be, for the 2019-20 season.