Mike Vaccaro, The Post's longtime sports columnist, discusses former Knicks president Phil Jackson's new book, in which the Hall of Fame coach claims that Carmelo Anthony was responsible for his firing after the 2016-17 NBA season.

New York Post

Watch Mike Vaccaro, The Post's longtime sports columnist, discusses former Knicks president Phil Jackson's new book, in which the Hall of Fame coach claims that Carmelo Anthony was responsible for his firing after the 2016-17 NBA season. - New York Post on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Did Carmelo Anthony run Phil Jackson out of the city?

00:03The Hall of Fame coach has a new book coming out named Masters of the Game

00:06that gives details about his tenuous relationship with Melo,

00:10how the Knicks contributed to the end of his engagement to Jeannie Buss,

00:14and his conversations with James Dolan before a mutual decision to part ways back in 2017.

00:21Well, our New York Post sports columnist Mike Vaccaro is on to relive the Phil Jackson era in the city.

00:27Mike, thanks for hopping on with this.

00:30I forgot Phil Jackson was here in New York City, but let's get into this book

00:35because it doesn't come out until November 4th, but there's a lot of stuff in here.

00:39And Phil kind of blames the drama with Melo for his downfall here in New York.

00:45Do you agree with that?

00:46And what do you think about what he said and his relationship with Melo while he was here?

00:52Brandon, I think he's got a lot of people chills up their spine by inviting them to relive the Phil Jackson time.

01:00Not a great time.

01:02And look, Phil is a guy who's protective of his legacy, always has been.

01:06He was terrible for him in New York, and so it's not unusual that you would think he's going to figure out excuses

01:11and reasons to explain away what was just a horrific time here.

01:15Really nothing that he left behind.

01:17You're not leaving the Knicks behind any stronger than when he arrived, which is the one thing you hope when you're a GM you do.

01:24Look, him and Melo were never a good fit.

01:27It was obvious from the start.

01:29It was obvious that he wanted Melo gone, but it was also obvious that because of the language of Melo's contract,

01:34he had a no trade deal.

01:35So he had to be able to convince him in order to make that happen.

01:39Never could.

01:40Not surprising.

01:41Those are two enormous personalities.

01:44And, you know, when the Knicks hired Phil, Brandon, I said, it's interesting that you would think he would be as good a GM as he was a coach

01:52because they're two different skill sets.

01:54You know, it's like expecting a really good heart surgeon to be a really good dentist.

01:57They're two different disciplines.

01:59And, you know, that's the example I'm going to cite every time someone tries to make that move from now on

02:04because that's how bad Phil Jackson's tenure was here.

02:06And now he's trying to, you know, kind of expunge that record to the best that he can by spinning.

02:13And so it's not unusual that Melo's going to get caught in that tornado.

02:16Growing up, Mike, my mom used to always say there's two sides to the story.

02:20How do you think Melo is going to respond when he kind of sits down to his 7 p.m. to Brooklyn podcast?

02:26And what do you remember most about that strenuous relationship between those two?

02:32Well, look, what I remember is the fact that, you know, I guess Melo didn't cover himself in glory his last years with the Knicks either

02:38because they were terrible teams.

02:39And he's a Hall of Fame player playing on bad teams.

02:43That's a bad mark on him.

02:44He wasn't playing with anybody.

02:46You know, anybody who wants to relitigate Carmelo Anthony's career with me,

02:50I point out the one year the Knicks actually gave him a legitimate team, they won 54 games.

02:55And by right, should have gone to the Eastern Conference Finals.

02:58Every other year here was a fiasco.

03:00It just was.

03:01And Phil Jackson helped to make those last years a fiasco.

03:06In a lot of ways, the only reason in those years to go to the Garden was to watch Carmelo Anthony,

03:11who was still brilliant even as his team, you know, couldn't win a game because he had no talent around him.

03:16So I think that Carmelo was a prideful enough guy.

03:20He didn't go looking for this fight, but Carmelo's a tough enough guy where he's not going to back down from one either.

03:25And I'm sure he's going to answer it very similarly the way that I did.

03:29I mean, you know, name three players from those Knicks teams the last two or three years that Carmelo was here.

03:35Those teams were put together by Phil Jackson.

03:37That's how bad those teams were.

03:38So is there anything in this book that you hope Phil discloses that can clear some things up about him

03:45or you're hoping to learn for the first time about his time in New York?

03:50Well, if we admit that he was wrong, it would be the first time.

03:52So that would be newsworthy, at least.

03:54And it would be part of the, you know, something to look for.

03:57I don't anticipate that.

03:58That's not who Phil is.

04:00That's not what he's ever been.

04:01And, you know, look, I mean, there's an aspect of Phil Jackson that's always going to be part of the Knicks

04:06because he was an important member of the 1973 team.

04:10He was injured in 1970.

04:11But he was a part of those really memorable teams that, you know, generations of New Yorkers still are in love with

04:18and believe in the standard of New York basketball.

04:20And in a lot of ways, he helped, you know, extend Red Holtzman's legacy

04:25because much of what he learned about coaching, he learned from Holtzman.

04:28So he's always going to have a New York tie, but the final chapter of that New York tie was a fiasco.

04:33And I think Knicks fans remember that.

04:35All right, Mike, thanks for hopping on with this.

04:38The book comes out November 4th.

04:40So thank you for that.

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