By the end of his reign in New York, the Knicks president was nothing like the free thinker who opened an era of new-age coachingDespite the misguided perceptions of many sports fans, running an NBA team is actually a grinder’s pursuit. The men charged with picking players and managing rosters must spend the time scouting, scheming and building. Phil Jackson, who was let go Wednesday as New York Knicks president, seemed to believe his own cult of personality was enough to make the league’s most dysfunctional franchise whole again. The message Jackson lost as he took a rich man’s millions and wasted three years of the franchise is that his entire name was built on the managing the brilliance of others. His 11...
The East’s top-seeds are already down 0-2 in their opening round series against the unimpressive Chicago Bulls, and have lost home court advantage It took the Boston Celtics the full 82 game season to secure home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs and exactly two games to lose it. With their 111-97 loss at TD Garden on Tuesday night, the Celtics fell to 0-2 in their opening round playoff series against the Chicago Bulls. It marked only the second time a No1 seed has dropped their first two games against a No8 seed since the development of the current NBA playoff system.Things felt a lot different for the Celtics just a week ago as they secured the best record...
The New Orleans Pelicans took a step forward, the Sacramento Kings took a step back, the LA Lakers hit the reset button – and the Boston Celtics went nowhereHeading into NBA trade deadline day, there was a very real fear that the biggest move of the year had already been made. But while nothing was likely to top the New Orleans Pelicans’ deal for DeMarcus Cousins, there was still plenty of talk that either the Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler or the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George could find their way to a contender before the 3pm ET deadline. Related: NBA trade deadline day: Mavericks get Noel from 76ers – as it happened ⌚️ Continue reading...
The former league MVP’s unexcused absence is a warning to the franchise that their win-now mentality could end up costing them dearlyBy now it’s obvious that the New York Knicks are not, at least primarily, a sports franchise at this point of their existence. They are really more of a long-running dark comedy occasionally interrupted by athletic displays that usually – but by no means always – resemble NBA games. Even by the Knicks’ standards, however, the events of the last few days have been unusual.On Monday night, the Knicks players had to prepare for a game without knowing the status of one of their team-mates. Starting point guard Derrick Rose did not show, and his team’s attempts to contact...