a book scheduled for release Nov. 4, <\/a>Jackson delves into his tenuous relationship with Melo, how the Knicks contributed to the end of his engagement to Jeanie Buss, a previously unknown desire to hire Virginia coach Tony Bennett and his conversations with Dolan before a \u201cmutual decision to part ways\u201d in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cDolan said to me, \u2018Are you going to get run out of town by the media?\u2019 I said, \u2018I know who the media is; that doesn\u2019t affect me,\u2019 \u201d Jackson said in the Carmelo chapter of his book, \u201cMasters of the Game,\u201d a conversational read on the 75 greatest players through the lens of the legendary coach and Hall of Fame scribe Sam Smith. \u201cBut Dolan felt it was too much. He said, \u2018I don\u2019t want you to go through it. I know what it\u2019s like to deal with these people.\u2019 I said, \u2018Unfortunately my relationship with Carmelo is kind of busted, and if he\u2019s going to be here, it\u2019s probably best that I go.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson and Anthony butted heads throughout their failed partnership, with much of the conflict rooted in playing styles. Jackson wanted the triangle offense and ball movement. Anthony never bought in \u2014 \u201c[Jeff] Hornacek said Carmelo wanted the ball,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
Still, Anthony had a no-trade clause and resisted waiving it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had this meeting with Dolan, I said, \u2018I don\u2019t want Carmelo back on the team; we\u2019ve got to find a way to trade him,\u2019 \u201d Jackson said in the book. \u201cI said, \u2018Let\u2019s sit with [Anthony\u2019s agent] Leon Rose and explain we\u2019re not going to win a championship. Carmelo wants a championship; he wants to be on a team that has a chance, and he should be; he\u2019s a Hall of Famer.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson also detailed a conversation with former Nuggets coach George Karl, who said Anthony, a star for Denver until being traded to the Knicks in 2011, rejected a defensive plan for selfish reasons in the 2009 Western Conference finals against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.<\/p>\n
Knicks president Phil Jackson speaks to reporters during a news conference, Feb. 8, 2016 AP<\/p>\n
\u201c[Karl said] \u2018Kobe\u2019s going to get his 30 points and we\u2019ll deal with that; shut down everybody else.\u2019 Carmelo interjected, \u2018No, I disagree with that. We\u2019ve got to defend Kobe first. We\u2019ve got to throw everything at him,\u2019 \u201d Jackson wrote. \u201c \u2018You know why?\u2019 George asked. \u2018[Carmelo] said he wanted to be the top scorer.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the end, the Lakers, who were coached by Jackson, won in six games and Bryant was still the leading scorer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter being with Carmelo in New York, I knew,\u201d Jackson said about the player who has also been blamed for sabotaging the Knicks tenures of Jeremy Lin and Mike D\u2019Antoni.<\/p>\n
Knicks\u2019 Phil Jackson looks on as Carmelo Anthony (7) inbounds the ball at training camp in 2014. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n
Anthony ultimately waived his no-trade clause to join the Thunder in September of 2017, less than three months after Jackson\u2019s departure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the book, Jackson also touched on his two highest draft picks as Knicks president, Kristaps Porzingis \u2014 \u201ca good draft pick, but his brother was in the way all the time\u201d \u2014 and Frank Ntilikina \u2014 \u201cthe NBA game turned out not to be for him. I thought he\u2019d be great in a two-guard system, 6-4, agile, but he could never shoot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jackson acknowledged that hiring Derek Fisher as head coach was a mistake because \u201che wasn\u2019t ready to coach.\u201d He revealed an attempt to lure Tony Bennett, the longtime Virginia coach, out of college.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (L) and an injured Kristaps Porzingis they sit on the bench during a 2015 game. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
New York Post cover for Friday, December 9, 2016. vmodica<\/p>\n
\u201c[Bennett] said, \u2018My kid\u2019s still in high school, so I\u2019m not doing that,\u2019 \u201d Jackson wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A source confirmed Jackson called Bennett for the Knicks gig, but the reason for the rejection was more so about his desire to stay at UVA. Bennett retired in 2024.<\/p>\n
Despite all the losing and chaos during his three full seasons as Knicks president, Jackson said his lone regret was losing his romantic relationship with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss. The pair called off their four-year engagement in 2016, apparently at the urging of the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI warned her, \u2018I don\u2019t think our relationship can survive this. I\u2019m not going to take this job,\u2019 \u201d Jackson, who signed a reported $60 million contract to run the Knicks front office, wrote. \u201c \u2018No, don\u2019t worry about it, we\u2019re going to be fine.\u2019 But she got pressure from the league because they worried about the idea of collusion that could happen between an owner and a president.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMasters of the Game\u201d also gathers Jackson\u2019s thoughts on his championship players, including Bryant, Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Michael Jordan. For Knicks fans, Jackson discusses his former teammates Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Clyde Frazier and Earl Monroe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No surprise \u2014 Jackson had better memories of them than of Carmelo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 James Dolan thought the media would run Phil Jackson out of town. But it was Carmelo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14230,21,9,11,1104,10,14231,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-21303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-carmelo-anthony","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-phil-jackson","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}