Mike Vaccaro

Mike Vaccaro

NBA

Why Carmelo’s waiting game is bad news for Phil Jackson

And so we wait …

And we wait …

And we wait …

And it is hard to shake the essence of déjà vu that has descended over the waiting, as last week turns into this week, as weekend turns into weekday, as Carmelo Anthony spends more time in Southern California, allowing Kobe Bryant more time to see if his Svengali spin can outdo Phil Jackson’s Zen zeal.

There were no dramatics to speak of Monday, although to top the reports that emerged on Sunday it would’ve meant Melo and Kobe were playing pickup at the old Fabulous Forum alongside Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, James Worthy, Elgin Baylor, Shaq, Magic, Pau Gasol and George Mikan.

Although they would’ve had to ask James Dolan for the keys to the gym since he owns the Forum now, so maybe that would’ve been a good thing for the Knicks …

So yes: Another day dawned, another day passed, and Anthony has yet to render a decision, and while the Knicks remain “confident” and logic still says that if he is going to leave the Knicks, it IS to play for a team like the Bulls earmarked for the Finals, and it ISN’T to be Kobe’s caddy in LA …

Well … haven’t we been here before?

Doesn’t this seem like the Knicks have already followed this playbook before, two months ago, when Steve Kerr was about to sign on the dotted line with the Knicks any second, any moment, any day, maybe at the end of the week, maybe at the start of next week …

And then wound up in Oakland?

Here’s the thing, too: As much as it stung Knicks fans to be hit with the reality that there ARE other places to coach, that there ARE better working environments for in-demand coaches, and as much as it might have given Phil Jackson’s bulletproof veneer a dent and a scratch, at this point it’s hard to tell if the Knicks were really adversely affected by THAT waiting game.

Maybe they were. And maybe they did just as well to wait and hire Derek Fisher. At this moment in time, both men have career coaching records of 0-0. It may be the Knicks wound up with the better man. It may be that BOTH are the better man. Or that neither is. All that is to come soon enough.

But this is a lot trickier match the Knicks are involved in now, a far riskier game of chicken. As closely to his vest as Jackson has tried to keep his cards, he did offer a tell in recent days: He apparently offered Anthony the max. That tells you that Jackson, who knows as well as anyone how essential star power is to building champions, understands a fundamental element about his franchise:

He needs Anthony on his side.

And if Anthony gets away now, now that Jackson has clearly come to buy into how vital he is to the Knicks’ fabric, then what does that say? This isn’t a pet student with zero track record who would be choosing California over New York like Kerr; this is almost 29 points a game making that call. This is one of the five best players on the planet making that decision.

Saying no to Jackson.

Making Jackson 0-for-2, when the strongest selling point to handing the franchise and $60 million of MSG money over to Jackson was his ability to recruit. What does this say, if Jackson is unable to RETAIN, let alone recruit? And what is the message to whatever foundation player Jackson turns his attention to next, that he wasn’t able to keep his own star in place, even with all that extra cash to spend?

So yes: The feeling may be eerily similar but the stakes are immeasurably different, incalculably higher. We have to assume Jackson has concocted a Plan B for Life Without Melo, but that blueprint won’t have anything remotely in common with Plan A. It leaves the Knicks absent a superstar. And in 2014’s NBA, it’s a lot easier to attract a second star than a first.

Of course … Anthony can still say yes. He may still walk away from the Sunset Strip, and from the Windy City warriors, and from whatever inevitable sneak attack Old Man Riles is undoubtedly concocting in his Biscayne Bay laboratory. The Knicks’ alleged confidence may well be justified.

We’ll have to wait on that for now. And wait. And wait.

And wait.