|
Phil Jackson views the Knicks as a flawed team and says he would have turned down the franchise had it offered him the head coaching job, according to a transcript of a coming segment of “Real Sports” on HBO.
“There’s just too much work that has to be done with that team,” Jackson said in the interview with Andrea Kremer, which is set to be televised on Tuesday. He added, “It’s a little bit of a clumsy team.”
But there was never a decision to make because the Knicks “never called,” Jackson told Kremer. The remarks could be viewed as an odd sort of vindication for Knicks officials, who were widely criticized for failing to reach out to Jackson.
— Reported by Howard Beck of the New York Times (Blog)
Explaining what he meant by clumsy, Jackson said, “Well, they don’t fit together well. Stoudemire doesn’t fit well with Carmelo. Stoudemire’s a really good player. But he’s got to play in a certain system and a way. Carmelo has to be a better passer, and the ball can’t stop every time it hits his hands. They need to have someone come in that can kind of blend that group together.”
When interviewer Andrea Kremer said it sounded as if Jackson was the perfect person to blend the talent because of his résumé, Jackson said, “Yeah, well, it never happened.”
— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post
