Phil Jackson Didn't Do the Homework
By Kyle Koster
Phil Jackson cost the New York Knicks a lot of money and didn’t help them win many basketball games. And evidence that he wasn’t fully engaged keeps piling up. In his latest podcast, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski shared this tidbit about the former president:
"“I heard some horror stories about Phil in presentation situations with players – unprepared, just disorganized. And sometimes, he’d have Steve Mills in there, who’d try to re-direct him. But I know of a couple players who walked out of meetings in a couple different free-agent scenarios and, ‘Wow, that was Phil Jackson? That’s not how I imagined he’d be.'”"
Yeesh. Jackson certainly did not earn the reputation as a guy who went above and beyond the call of duty — or as a guy who stayed awake for the important stuff.
Jay Williams says a recruit told him that PhilJackson was "falling in and out of sleep during my workout." WHOApic.twitter.com/XL5JiBs5IR
— The Shadow League (@ShadowLeague) June 22, 2017
It’s quite alarming that one of the finest coaches of all-time put on a George Costanza-like performance for four years, but here we are. As far as we know he, though, he wasn’t actively trying to get fired.