Rate PJ's first 90 days on the job

tiger0330

Legend
I think PJ has done pretty well and while being skeptical of a first time NBA President and GM with no executive level experience other than his peerless coaching record; he has dispelled my skepticism and I'm going to give him an A for his first 90 days because I think he is on his way to achieving what he discussed in his book about changing the culture of the NY Knicks.

From some of his player moves I see a prudent exec not prone to throwing money around and looking for guys that fit in his system rather, I think you'll see him pass on stars that don't have chemistry with the team. It's a concept that SA employs with Buford where he measures a player against certain criteria the Spurs have for players.

The News published this article with excerpts from Phil's book and from it I see a guy with a vision and the experience of many years to pull it off.

Exclusive: Phil Jackson talks about return to Knicks and Madison Square Garden

Once a player on the Knicks' championship teams, the Zen Master became an NBA legend as a coach with the Bulls and Lakers, but couldn't resist the call to come home.

BY Phil Jackson , Hugh Delehanty
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, July 17, 2014, 11:21 PM

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Seth Wenig/AP It doesn't take long for the Garden crowd to warm up to Phil Jackson again. Despite an intense rivaly with the Knicks as the coach of the Bulls in the '90s, Jackson is welcomed back to try and restore the franchise.
From ELEVEN RINGS: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty. Reprinted by arrangement with The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC. Copyright 2013, 2014 by Phil Jackson.
* * *
There?s a part of me that has always longed to lead a simpler, more ascetic life. But I?ve had to balance that with the demands of constantly being in the public eye. When I retired from coaching, Jeanie urged me to stay up to date with what was happening in the basketball world ? which I did ? but my first inclination was to go inside and become more attuned to my ?inner minister.? I fantasized about slowing down, living more mindfully, and dedicating myself primarily to service. I was happy being the chief cook and bottle washer at home and spending a good part of my time buying the groceries, making dinner, and taking care of the household. I taught meditation to some business executives and flirted with the idea of mentoring students at the Union Theological Center. As long as they didn?t call me ?Reverend,? I thought, it would be OK.
Then Irving Azoff invited me to his birthday party.
Irving is a prominent music industry executive who manages The Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Steely Dan and other stars. He?s also a long-time Lakers fan, who I?d often seen at games sitting with The Eagles? Glenn Frey along the baseline near our bench. Irving?s wife, Shelli, is famous for throwing a large ?Just Us Girls? party at their home in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. Not to be outdone, Irving decided to toss a similar bash for around 150 male friends to celebrate his birthday in early December. The guest list included several members of The Eagles, actor Larry David, CBS head Lester Moonves, and Jim Dolan, the executive chairman of The Madison Square Garden Company, which owns the New York Knicks. Irving gave me a heads up that Jim wanted to talk to me about his team.
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Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Knicks owner James Dolan and Jackson at the president's introductory press conference. Dolan has promised Jackson full authority on basketball moves, something he hasn't often done in the past.

There was a lot to talk about. A few months earlier Jim had replaced the Knicks? general manager Glen Grunwald with former Madison Square Garden executive Steve Mills right before the start of training camp. The team had gotten off to a shaky start in October and things went from bad to worse when star center Tyson Chandler broke his leg in early November. I told Jim that he needed to be patient. ?It?s only five or six weeks into the season,? I said. ?Your team hasn?t had time to gel together yet.?
In my view, the Knicks needed to pick up the pace, move the ball more effectively, and play a tougher brand of basketball. Jim and I sat in Irving?s office discussing the plight of the Knicks for an hour or so and almost missed dinner before we decided to pick up our conversation again after the holidays.

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Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily News Irving Azoff, chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment, helps the Knicks bring in Jackson.

Our next tete-?-tete was at Jerry?s Deli, a New York-style hangout in Marina del Rey, not far from my home. Jim, who had recently formed a joint venture called Azoff MSG Entertainment with Irving?s firm, was in town to discuss revamping the Lakers? former home, The Forum, which was now part of the Madison Square Garden enterprise.
Jim asked me what I would do with the team if I came on board. ?I?d have to get really involved if I was going to be part of the operation,? I said. ?I?d need to know what was happening on a daily basis.?
?So what kind of role do you want?? said Jim.


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Rick Bowmer/AP Re-signing All-Star Carmelo Anthony is Jackson's first big completed job.

?Well, I know I don?t want to be general manager.?
Irving was listening from a booth across the room.
?Make him the president,? he said to Jim. ?He needs to be the president.?
That was it. A week later Steve Mills flew to L.A. and we devised a plan for how we could work together. I was impressed by Steve?s business savvy and his willingness to step down as the team?s president to work with me as general manager. I thought we could make a good team.
What intrigued me about the job was the opportunity to re-create the culture from the ground up, much as I had hoped to do with the ill-starred franchise in Seattle. Jim had pledged to give me full authority over the basketball operations and a free hand to make whatever changes were necessary to bring another championship to New York.

Still, I wondered how much impact I could have given the fact that the team was seriously over-extended vis-?-vis the new collective bargaining agreement. The Knicks had eight players under contract for 2014-2015, including Chandler, Amar?e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani, for combined salaries of around $50 million, and the current salary cap was $58.7 million. Not only that, but the team?s only bona fide star ? Carmelo Anthony ? had announced that he was planning to test the free agent market in the off-season. Plus the Knicks didn?t have any draft picks to play around with and many of the top players were recovering from injuries. This would be an interesting ride.

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AP Jackson during his playing days with the Knicks.

Our final meeting took place on March 2 at the La Quinta Resort near Palm Desert, California. Jim, a risk taker at heart and a veteran maxi-yacht racer, asked me to design an outdoor adventure for himself, Steve and me. I had a guide lead us on a wild chase across the desert in all-terrain vehicles to see how my future colleagues would respond in hostile territory. They did fine; I was the one who got lost. Or rather, as Daniel Boone once said, ?I?ve never been lost, but I was mighty turned around for three days once.?
That trip removed any doubts I had about moving forward. Under the clear desert sky, Jim and I had a meeting of the minds and we set a date in mid-March for my return to the Knicks.
When I arrived in New York, my first job was to stabilize the direction of the Knicks and get everybody in the organization speaking in one voice about where we were headed. I wasn?t talking about making a quick turnaround, but building a strong, sustainable future for the team based on the principles of teamwork and selflessness outlined in this book.
For me, the key is building trust. I don?t want to be the kind of president who huddles privately with the GM and keeps everyone else in the dark. In my new role, I?m not going to be as hands-on with the team as I was as a coach, but I can open up the circle and make sure everybody with good ideas gets a chance to be heard.

We have some talented people in this organization, but they need more direction. Our scouts and analysts also need to align the tons of information on potential prospects they churn out every day with our long-range vision for the team. To that end, we?re planning to analyze every team in the league and figure out as a group what?s driving them, so that we can make moves now that will make sense three to five years down the road.

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Phil Jackson's autobiography 'Eleven Rings.'

New York is a media pressure-cooker and the Knicks have been hurt frequently in the past by ill-conceived leaks to reporters. Nevertheless, I?m not a fan of putting tight restrictions on the media. Instead I prefer to build trust within the group so that everyone is committed to protecting the team?s most vital secrets. It?s a tricky dance sometimes. I?ve spent a lot of time during my first weeks in New York dispelling rumors about what moves I?m planning to make. Every time a bogus story surfaces in the media, my message to the staff is: Don?t worry. We?re not deviating from our long-range plan. The key is to trust each other. And if somebody violates that trust, then we?ll deal with it. You may be able to fool me once, but never twice.
Another thing I intend to address is the team?s culture of indifference. Back in pre-historic times when I was a player, we didn?t have an in-house concierge service. We had to wash our own clothes, distribute our own tickets, and take care of our nutrition plans (if that?s what you want to call meals at the Carnegie Deli). I?m not saying we should go back to the DIY system, but we need to re-establish the sense of professional responsibility that went with it. The question is: Are the Knicks going to be a coddled group of players who have to rely on somebody else to look after their every whim or a team of serious-minded professionals whose top priority is getting the job done?
During my second campaign with the Lakers, we had some great team leaders ? Kobe, Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol ? who often went through hell physically to play the entire season. During my final year, we had six players who played all 82 games. In 2013-14 the Knicks didn?t have one. The goal is not to be super macho, but to fight each battle together and protect the team?s hard-won bond.

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Andrew Theodorakis/New York Daily News Former Knicks players (l. to r.) Clyde Frazier, Phil Jackson and Dick Barnett put their hands in.

Resilience isn?t the Knicks? biggest problem, however. When I talked to the players in the postseason, many of them said that they really liked their teammates off-court, but not everybody was on the same page when they hit the floor. And, contrary to media reports, they didn?t blame the coach for their lack of harmony; they blamed themselves. They hadn?t been willing, they confessed, to make the sacrifices necessary to join together as a team.

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New York Daily News As the back page of the March 16, 2014 edition of The News says, Jackson's had a long career in basketball that comes full circle with a return to the Big Apple.

It?s good to be back in New York. Although the city has changed dramatically since my first trip here as a rookie forty-seven years ago, it still feels like home to me. I love the energy, the intelligence, the pace of life in the city. In L.A. you can hide in your own bubble for weeks on end. But in New York you have shoulder-to-shoulder contact with the whole world everywhere you go. It?s invigorating.
No question, I have a big job ahead of me. Now that we?ve hired Derek Fisher as the new head coach, we need to bring in a some new players to complement Carmelo (who has decided to stay with the Knicks), change the team chemistry and give the team more of the grit and character New York is famous for. Derek was an exceptional leader when he played for me on the Lakers and I?m certain he?ll inspire the players to meld together and play the game the right way.

Soon, the honeymoon will be over. I can already sense the sharks circling in the water. But that doesn?t bother me. What matters now is waking up every morning and getting a chance to do something I?ve always dreamed of: re-awakening the team that Red Holzman built, the team that changed my life forever.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
F+ so far but I admit that's unfair and too short a time to give out a verdict.

Great verdict F+ ...for FAILURE!

How could the famous "ZEN" let a basketball dummy James Dolan talk him into resigning a CANCER player Carmelo Anthony at a ridiculous price NO team in the league will ever trade for???
I understand its Dolan money and team, but Phil Jackson just did a famous Isiah Thomas move as president.
 

jimkcchief88

All Star
Y'all trippin B+ for resigning Melo would be an A + if PJ managed to dump STAT/Bargs. Kiya longtime poster losing mad cred for consigning the young and dumb Melo haterade#should kno better
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Y'all trippin B+ for resigning Melo would be an A + if PJ managed to dump STAT/Bargs. Kiya longtime poster losing mad cred for consigning the young and dumb Melo haterade#should kno better

The $124M contract should let u know James Dolan gave the Knicks future to ISO-Melo
The individual player!!!
This time next year u will have excuses


In 2010 we gave the future of the Knicks to Amare for $100M.
I wasn't to happy with the amount $$$ of Amare signing, but Amare had the Knicks playin .500 b.ball.

In 2011 we gave Melo a $100M to help Amare advance the team above .500 b.ball.
In 2011 Melo took over the Knicks team, forcing everyone to endure Melo's individual way of playing.
Carmelo Anthony only knows one way to play...Individual isolation b.ball.
 
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tiger0330

Legend
Y'all trippin B+ for resigning Melo would be an A + if PJ managed to dump STAT/Bargs. Kiya longtime poster losing mad cred for consigning the young and dumb Melo haterade#should kno better
Rant sports.com gave PJ a B+ for resigning Melo among other things. Have to give Phil all the credit for getting Melo to stay when Melo says he'd be in Chicago if Phil wasn't running the show.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
what a load of bull$hit.... melo signed here for one reason...$$$$$.... I;ve been a melo rooter, but now, I hope they lose 50games, and melo never even gets a sniff at a ring...


Melo's skills has held him back from winning postseason games in his 10 yr career, after Derek Rose, Kobe, and Hardin refuse to welcome Melo when visiting their team as a FA. I dont see any winning star player helping Melo get to a conference final.
 
Melo's skills has held him back from winning postseason games in his 10 yr career, after Derek Rose, Kobe, and Hardin refuse to welcome Melo when visiting their team as a FA. I dont see any winning star player helping Melo get to a conference final.


I checked back into the site today just to see what was going on after a long hiatus and low and behold there he is

kiyaman the bonafied idiot reminding me why I stopped posting here in the first place

peace
 

Kiyaman

Legend
I checked back into the site today just to see what was going on after a long hiatus and low and behold there he is

kiyaman the bonafied idiot reminding me why I stopped posting here in the first place

peace

yeah yeah yeah - blah blah

This time in the offseason (August), i called-out the Knicks winning the Atlantic division title, and last year I called the Knicks not winning 40 games.
Yeah! my prediction pissed off a lot of members ...its better than u spreading all those excuses in other forums.

u and Melo need to learn the next level of b.ball
 
Y'all trippin B+ for resigning Melo would be an A + if PJ managed to dump STAT/Bargs. Kiya longtime poster losing mad cred for consigning the young and dumb Melo haterade#should kno better

No needed to get melo to accept less money like lebron in order to have a good grade so far, but F+ would have gone tp F- if he just plain lost Melo for nothing.
 

jimkcchief88

All Star
That's the point tho; This site has gone downhill big time. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, but unfounded blind hate is another matter. It turns the intelligent posters we used to have around here off (like Don't forget Derek Harper, Hometheater Guy, Donchris, even gasp Metro) and the site is worse for it. We might as well rename this site the "we hate Melo site." It's foolish to be sure.
 

tiger0330

Legend
That's the point tho; This site has gone downhill big time. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion, but unfounded blind hate is another matter. It turns the intelligent posters we used to have around here off (like Don't forget Derek Harper, Hometheater Guy, Donchris, even gasp Metro) and the site is worse for it. We might as well rename this site the "we hate Melo site." It's foolish to be sure.
Crazy8's web site had more impact than anything else, KOL even with Crazy8 was never very big but when he left and took maybe a dozen or so members with him that put a dent in the activity around here. I do miss Crazy8's and Metrocard around here, probably 2 of the best posters on KOL but having those two guys on the same BBS just wasn't possible.
 
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