Phil Jackson is one of the few who you can make an argument to be the greatest coach in NBA history, and he might well be the greatest. Jackson won 11 titles in his 20 seasons as a coach with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers to cement his place in the pantheon of great coaches.
Thanks to all of his success on the sidelines, the New York Knicks decided to hire Jackson as team president in 2014. In what was yet another reminder that a great coach doesn’t necessarily make a great executive, Jackson had a disastrous tenure with the Knicks, and he oversaw their worst season in franchise history in 2014-15, as they went 17-65.
Things got marginally better the following seasons, but a chance to turn around their fortunes finally came in the 2017 NBA Draft. The Knicks, who had the 8th pick, had a shot at drafting Donovan Mitchell but instead went with Frank Ntilikina, who ended up being a bust. That proved to be Jackson’s final significant move, as he and the team mutually parted ways less than a week after the draft. Stephen A. Smith, who is a Knicks fan, still hasn’t forgiven Jackson for that blunder and blasted him on First Take for it recently.
“Ladies and Gentleman, Donovan Mitchell is a star. I will never speak highly about Phil Jackson again because he passed up on that brother to draft Frank Ntilikina. Every shred of credibility Phil Jackson ever had, even though he’s an 11-time champion, went out the window with me. I believe that Phil Jackson should be banned from city limits from New York City after what he did with that pick,”
One can only wonder how differently things might have turned out for the Knicks if they had drafted Mitchell. Perhaps, Kristaps Porzingis never requests a trade, and the two might have become the foundational pieces for their revival. Instead, Porzingis eventually left, and the Knicks once again hit rock bottom by winning 17 games in 2018-19.
Five years after they passed up on him, the Knicks are now seriously trying to land Mitchell and reportedly had a significant offer rejected by the Jazz. Utah wants even more compensation for their star guard, and all of this could have been avoided if Jackson hadn’t made the wrong decision back then.
