Steve Mills and Jim Cleamons shared a handshake and a man hug as they crossed paths while the Bucks shot baskets before Saturday afternoon’s game against the Knicks at the Garden.
“How’s everything?” Cleamons asked.
“Couldn’t be better,” Mills said.
It was a quick exchange between Phil Jackson’s past and his future. Cleamons has been Jackson’s loyal assistant for championships in Chicago and Los Angeles before moving on to assist Larry Drew in Milwaukee. Mills, the Knicks vice president and general manager, will be Jackson’s right-hand man when Jackson officially is named the team president Tuesday.
It will be a good day for Mills. Contrary to previous reports, Mills first spoke with Jackson three months ago about assuming the position he ultimately accepted, a source close to the situation told The Post, and not about becoming the team’s head coach.
Mills, muzzled from the media by Knicks ownership, has been talking with Jackson throughout the process, selling him on the benefits of joining the team’s front office and offering his loyalty and assistance.
“He didn’t talk to Phil about a coaching job,” the source said. “He talked to Phil about this job.”
Mills politely declined an interview request Saturday, saying only, “It’s exciting.”
At first glance it might appear Mills is being pushed out to make room for Jackson. It’s more like he’s scooting over.
Landing Jackson was part of a plan Mills endorsed to get the Knicks in position to not only stay competitive in 2014-15, but also take full advantage of the 2015-16 free-agent signing period when the team will have ample cap space to pursue potential free agents such as Kevin Durant.
Mills is also part of that plan. If Jackson is the president of basketball operations, Mills still will be in charge of the business of basketball, especially when it comes to dealing with the agents, for whom Jackson has little patience.
“Steve has already done a lot of work in that area that no one had really done before,” the source said. “He’ll continue to do that.”
None of it works if Carmelo Anthony leaves and the Knicks start from scratch. Getting Jackson gives Anthony reason to accept the extra $30 million the Knicks can pay him. Anthony called landing Jackson a “power move,” and said he was eager to speak with the Zen Master.
Cleamons may or may not be part of the mix. He was an assistant under Jackson from 1989-96 in Chicago and for 10 years across two tours in Los Angeles. His name has been mentioned as a potential candidate to replace Mike Woodson as the Knicks head coach should a change be made. But Cleamons was 28-70 during a short tenure as a head coach in Dallas from 1996-98. He could also be brought in as an assistant to teach Jackson’s Triangle offense.
A source said the Knicks coaching situation was not part of the discussions with Jackson and likely won’t be addressed until after the season.
That opens the possibility Woodson has a chance to keep his job if the Knicks continue playing well.
A 115-94 burial of the Bucks was the Knicks’ sixth-straight victory. But they remain three games out of the eighth playoff spot in the East.
Woodson said before Saturday’s game he didn’t feel the need to prove himself over the final 16 games, but how the Knicks finish will be the lasting impression of his work.
Otherwise, Woodson said all the right things about Jackson’s hiring.
“Anytime you can get a great basketball mind that comes into your organization, it can’t do nothing but help,” he said.
That was Mills’ thinking as well. Ideally, Mills would love to have rebuilt the Knicks on his own. He never really had a chance to do that.
Named to his post four days before training camp, he inherited the team assembled by Glen Grunwald. It was doomed from the beginning as injuries to J.R. Smith, Amar’e Stoudemire, Kenyon Martin and Tyson Chandler led to a 10-21 start.
He, like Woodson, has been paddling uphill ever since. Now Jackson arrives to help with the heavy lifting. Couldn’t be better.