Report: Knicks' coaching search on hold with Jackson on vacation

There's apparently a good reason the New York Knicks haven't been showing up in any of the latest coaching rumors. Or, at least, a reason.

Knicks president Phil Jackson is on vacation, and according to ESPN's Ian Begley, some people involved in the team's coaching search have been informed that Jackson is away, implying that the search is on hold.

Jackson has been tweeting updates from his voyage, while once-rumored candidates for the vacant Knicks job in Tom Thibodeau and Luke Walton - neither of whom were interviewed by Jackson - have been scooped up by other teams.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reported Wednesday that Jackson is on his way to his Montana home to "collect his thoughts" about the coaching search.

"Still thinking it through," a source close to Jackson told Berman. "He’s always been such a quick thinker - always three, four steps ahead of everybody else. But that's as coach. Being the executive is really different for him."

While the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves have aggressively pursued and landed their top targets, and the Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets have cast wide nets that include anywhere from 14 to 21 candidates, the Knicks have interviewed ... David Blatt. Even the Indiana Pacers, within hours of announcing they wouldn't renew Frank Vogel's contract, reportedly had a list of at least five potential candidates to replace him.

This may all be a sign that Jackson remains set on simply removing the "interim" tag from Kurt Rambis' coaching title, which has reportedly long been his preference.

If that's the case, though, it's worth wondering why he hasn't just done so already, given that he doesn't appear to be bothering even with the pretense of an actual coaching search.

Perhaps Jackson will answer that when he returns from his vacation.