Derek Fisher and the New York Knicks had an ugly split.
Team president Phil Jackson, though, never really made a point to talk about the issues in public—until now.
Jackson spoke with Today’s Fastbreak:
A divorce and coast-to-coast move with children does put pressure on a person’s life, but that’s the NBA. However, Derek did move the team forward. He was dedicated and he worked hard. The players hustled and, for the most part, stayed as positive as was possible. And Derek did manage to survive last season and to deal with the heavy pressure of the constant losing, which is probably more intense in New York than in any other NBA city.
Indeed, Fisher was having a hard enough time off the court while trying to keep Carmelo Anthony happy and the Knicks competitive during his first pro coaching job .
Jackson went on to say Fisher’s inability to nail down a rotation hurt things:
When I was coaching, I liked to play a lot of players and usually found a rotation of 9-10 players to play, but it was hard for Derek to find a workable rotation. Nevertheless, the team did develop under him, and we have enough pieces in place to give us a chance to compete every night.
It’s an interesting insight, as Fisher didn’t exactly have the top talent in the world at each position.
Fisher didn’t make it through his second season with the team as a results of the issues, finishing with a 40-96 record. He’s now perhaps thinking about an NBA comeback if recent workout videos are to be believed. Another coaching opportunity, especially after Jackson opening up like this, is hard to predict.
As for the Knicks, Jackson just hired Jeff Hornacek and brought on Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in an effort to surround Anthony with more talent and make the job easier on the head coach. The Jackson-Fisher marriage will remain one of the more interesting “what could have been?” stories for a long time.
