CHICAGO — In the wake of Phil Jackson’s first setback as president, getting spurned by Steve Kerr, Warriors consultant/minority owner Jerry West said it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Zen Master to do what he does best — coach the Knicks himself.
“I think his greatest value would be down there on the bench, to be honest with you, because he’s had so much success and this is going to be a particularly difficult challenge [for the front office] because they are faced with challenges back there,’’ West told The Post at the Chicago draft combine. “The first thing he has to do is find a coach he’ll be satisfied with unless he decides to do it. At this point of his life, his health issues, which he keeps pretty private, it might not be something he wants to do.’’
Sources told The Post Jackson still isn’t ready to make himself a Knicks coaching candidate. West had his tough moments with Jackson when the Zen Master was coach and West general manager in Los Angeles. There’s one fabled incident of Jackson cursing out West when he walked into the Lakers’ locker room, yelling at him to leave. A recent West biography depicts Jackson often giving West the cold shoulder, not saying hello.
West said Thursday Jackson will have to change his demeanor as president.
“I often felt the real job of someone in the executive office is to be a buffer between the coaches/players and the press, try to have a relationship with whoever is coaching the team,’’ West said. “ Players are going to be drawn to find out what kind of person he is. That’s going to be another part of his job he’s going to have to change. The success he’s had, there’s no reason why he can’t have success in this job but it’s going to be completely different. He’s going to have to change a lot of things about the way he [does things] because of his role. It might be a little different job for him to do that because he’s only been confined to coaching.’’
West confirmed the Warriors were first trying to land Detroit-bound Stan Van Gundy before Kerr.
“We had narrowed the list to three guys,’’ West said. “The owner had great interest in Van Gundy, great interest. He had another situation he wanted to be part of. Steve was a guy very high on our owner’s list and management’s list. He said all the right things to ownership.’’