Former Knicks president Isiah Thomas swears if it were not for Phil Jackson’s Hollywood romance with Lakers vice president Jeanie Buss, Jackson would have accepted the Knicks’ job offer in 2005 and changed the course of franchise history.
The Lakers coach will be a coaching free agent this summer and Buss wrote in an e-mail to The Post this weekend that she would not stand in Jackson’s way if he desired to move east.
The Bulls, Nets and Cavaliers have coaching openings and there is speculation free agent LeBron James would love to play for the Zen Master as he seeks his first championship.
Knicks president Donnie Walsh has a coach in place whom King James likes in Mike D’Antoni, but Jackson always has been intrigued about the chance to coach on Broadway.
“I don’t know how things will work out,” Buss wrote. “I am hoping the Lakers win and everything stays status quo, but the one thing I do know is that I am not going to stand in Phil’s way if he wants to go to another team.”
Jackson is seeking to add to his record 10 NBA coaching championships as the Lakers take on the Celtics in the NBA Finals, which start Thursday in Los Angeles.
The odds are Jackson either retires with his record ring collection because of health concerns or he returns to the Lakers. But Jackson has left the door open for a new job and Jeanie Buss, daughter of Lakers owner Jerry Buss, seemed to concur it is possible.
“I don’t control him — if I did I would have a ring on my finger, but I am not going to threaten to break up with him if he takes another job,” Jeanie Buss added. “Our relationship is solid no matter where he works. There are plenty examples of wives that don’t move to the city their spouse is coaching. I hear [Celtics coach] Doc Rivers’s family is still in Orlando. So that will not make a difference.”
Last week, Jackson said he would “like to have a vodka” with the Nets’ new billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov. Nets president Rod Thorn has denied reports that he reached out to Jackson through back channels. The Nets feel the Zen Master could be leery of spending two seasons in Newark.
Jackson has called the Cavaliers’ opening “an odd situation,” and he claimed he would have no interest in a return to Chicago, where he coached from 1989-1998. It is also hard to imagine Jackson wanting to reside in dreary Cleveland. When he coached the Continental Basketball Association’s Albany Patroons in the early-to-mid 1980’s, he refused to live in the state capital, choosing instead to commute an hour from artsy Woodstock.
The Knicks? Walsh tried to dismiss the notion he would be willing to fire D’Antoni if King James made it a requirement in signing, but Walsh also did not rule it out.
“I doubt if I have a coach I’m going to listen to a player that [we’ve] got to change the coach, got to change this, got to change that,” Walsh said in a ESPN Radio interview. “You got to keep the franchise in order. So I’ll listen, but I haven’t heard that from a player.”
James is on record saying he loves D’Antoni’s offensive philosophy, but in two seasons with the Knicks, D’Antoni’s defensive reputation has taken a further hit.
“We’re not just accepting Mike’s not a good defensive coach because everyone’s writing it now,” Walsh said. “I think now that Phoenix did what they did [in reaching the conference finals], it’s showing his style could be really successful at the higher levels.”