Phil Jackson on Knicks' draft, Isiah Thomas, Urban Dictionary, and more
Zen is still operating in his own universe.
New York Knicks president Phil Jackson sat down with general manager Steve Mills and the New York Times' Scott Cacciola for a Q&A session, leading the way to what might be some of the most entertaining Knicks content in a decade. This included Jackson's opinion about Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan's rehiring of Isiah Thomas to run the WNBA's New York Liberty.
Cacciola: Have you spoken to Isiah Thomas since he was hired to run the Liberty?
Jackson: Yeah, Isiah came in my office. I was on the phone, but I was able to shake his hand. And there have been a number of times when we've just bumped into each other here in the cafeteria. We talked about the playoffs, about his team. He seems to be happy doing his job, and that's about it.
Cacciola: Were you consulted before Thomas was brought in?
Jackson: Jim Dolan had talked to us about it over dinner, maybe a month before it happened. We said, "Are you cognizant of the fact that this at least has the look of putting the fox in the henhouse?" Is that a good term? In reviewing the history of it, we were told what the approach was by the Garden and how it went down. Jim said, "If you have any suggestions that you want to come back with, I'm open." And not being in that field, I didn't have any information. It's not where my head is at. So we're not giving them any advice, and it’s going both ways.
As far as the Knicks go, Jackson said they're flexible in next week's draft. While clear about the team's need for a big in Jackson's sacred triangle, both he and Mills are aware that Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor will likely be gone by the fourth pick.
"We have no big men," Jackson said. "So we're seeing what can we add to our team that will move us along and make us a better team, and we'll have to fill out that big possibility with some free agents if we end up going smaller with wings and guards in the draft."
Mills touched on that, in that Frank Kaminsky, Trey Lyles, Joshua Smith, and Kevon Looney had worked out for the Knicks. Some reports have New York highly impressed with Lyles, even possibly reaching for the Canadian at No. 4.
"If Phil says we need to get a big guy, well, we just sat in a film session with four big guys who watched the way a big guy operates in the triangle," Mills said. "I think it's a lot more attractive than a lot of the basketball that they'll see other teams play."
Jackson said Carmelo Anthony's recovery from knee surgery is going well.
"Everything's going along swimmingly, as they would say," he said.
In May, Jackson appeared to date himself when he questioned the value of increased 3-point shooting in the postseason. With the Golden State Warriors winning it all, he was asked about his position on that again.
"I just wanted to see someone come back to me with statistics: Is 3-point shooting in the playoffs as consistent as it is in the regular season? Does your 3-point-shooting percentage change because you’re in the playoffs? No one figured that one out," Jackson said.
For the record, the Warriors shot 37.4 percent from deep in the playoffs on 30.5 attempts per game. They shot 39.8 percent in the regular season on 27 attempts.
When asked about Jackson's odd use of the word "goink" during his initial Twitter rant on the subject, the 69-year-old Jackson said he looked the word up on Urban Dictionary and was shocked at its slang use - a racial epithet or a vulgar sexual reference.