We have reached a point in time when it would behoove Phil Jackson to galvanize his constituency. He will not do that by closing his circle of trust, by gathering only his closest cronies together and picking among them as he tries to put the Steve Kerr Spurning behind him.
Kurt Rambis? It is bad enough that you close your eyes and not only do you see those old Clark Kent glasses, but you see him riding Magic Johnson’s Showtime coattails (even if he did enter the league as a third-round draft pick by the Knicks in 1980). It is worse when you look up his coaching record, 56-145.
Jim Cleamons? Nobody was a closer ally to Jackson than Cleamons, nobody understands the triangle better, nobody on earth is a more snugly fitting stand-in for the real thing than Cleamons, who was on staff for nine of Jackson’s 11 titles in Chicago and Los Angeles. He, too, has Knicks ties, from the really bad old days of 1977-79. And he, too, has a blightful record as an NBA head coach: 28-70.
Derek Fisher? He would be a fresh mound of clay, sure, and that might be exactly what Jackson wants, a way he can coach the team without actually coaching the team, without actually having to be there every day, in person. But making that Jason Kidd Jump — Kidd proved this year he will almost certainly be a terrific coach. Someday. But can the Knicks afford to have a coach learning on the fly?
So no: None of the obvious members of Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet would be that rousing force, the igniter to push Jackson’s train back on the tracks. And Jackson has insisted time and again that the one thing that would electrify the populace — coaching the team himself — can’t happen because his health is too much of an issue.
But if hiring Jackson can’t happen, there’s still an option that can.
And that’s hiring Jackson — Mark Jackson, that is.
He is, like Phil, another former Knick, a popular one, a coach with a resume and a reputation (both good and bad) and, you have to think, a yearning to show the Warriors they made a grievous mistake dismissing him after a 51-win season. Which means Jackson & Jackson would start their journey with a common enemy: the Warriors, who kidnapped Kerr and jettisoned Jackson.
Among Knicks fans, that would be a hit, and Mark Jackson probably would be the second-leading candidate if the choice were put to a referendum. Jeff Van Gundy is still the crown prince for many, but it is hard to believe either man would be able to fully forget past slights (Jackson furtively interviewing for his job while Van Gundy was leading the 1999 Knicks to the NBA Finals) and insults (who can ever forget “Big Chief Triangle?”).
So there is Jackson, out of Brooklyn and Bishop Loughlin and St. John’s, a Rookie of the Year with the Knicks in 1988, a guy who always relished big stages and big challenges, who led the Warriors out of a two-decade morass to back-to-back playoff berths.
There is plenty to like about Jackson: His players at Golden State were devoted to him, to a man. If you watched any of his huddles or pregame talks during the playoffs on TNT or ESPN, you understood why, because by the end you were willing to fly to Oakland and take a charge for him. He is a big personality. And he got results.
He was also, by all accounts, impossibly difficult to work with, built fissions into his own coaching staff, didn’t always have his mind attuned to his job since he is also the pastor of a church in Los Angeles. Which you could also look at this way: How much would the attendant Garden dysfunction he’d be joining really bother him?
The Warriors were annoyed he never moved full time to the Bay Area, but you have to believe if Jackson is interested in the Knicks’ gig, he’d have to keep his focus on basketball in season; it isn’t exactly easy to commute regularly from L.A. to New York, even if you’re Don Draper.
So that’s the concession Mark Jackson would have to make. Phil Jackson? It would mean widening his search and, perhaps, closing his sphere of influence. It would mean sharing the spotlight with another popular former Knick. And he would certainly not be hiring a yes man, unless you count the way many Knicks fans would react to the news, by channeling Voice in Exile Marv Albert:
Yesssssss!