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Lupica: Phil failed with 'His Guy' and now needs 'Best Guy'

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Knicks president Phil Jackson needs to hire best coach for the job, not another one of 'his' guys.Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News

Knicks president Phil Jackson needs to hire best coach for the job, not another one of ‘his’ guys.

This is what an NBA coach said on the telephone the day the Knicks paid Phil Jackson $60 million to restore the team to its old glory, because of Phil’s glory days coaching the Bulls and Lakers:

“It’s going to be a big bamboozle.”

By the way? The comment was made by a man who has tremendous respect for the work that Phil did with the Bulls and the Lakers, when he was running a triangle offense that is gangbusters when you can finally throw the ball to one of the ten best players of all time.

ISOLA: PHIL JACKSON NEEDS TO THINK OF COACH OUTSIDE TRIANGLE

Now the Knicks have fired another coach, the way they have fired coaches left and right over a 15-year period when they have won exactly one Atlantic Division title and one playoff series and made the playoffs three times. And while Jackson is now conducting coaching tutorials on social media before he officially begins his search for a new coach, it means the Knicks start all over again, not even 150 games into the Jackson years, which are making Mike Woodson’s years coaching the Knicks feel like glory days.

“They hired one of the greatest coaches in history NOT to coach,” the same guy said to me Tuesday. “And let me get this straight: He doesn’t have the energy to coach his team, but he does to basically be president and general manager?”

Give Jackson all the credit for bringing Kristaps Porzingis to New York and to the Garden, because the Latvian kid may turn out to be a transformative player. The kid fell into his lap at No. 4 in the draft, and Jackson finally decided not to trade the pick, and he had the guts to make the call, and good for him.

Other than that, Jackson hired somebody — Fisher — who clearly wasn’t ready to be a head coach in the NBA, and might never be. Not only did he do that, but he paid Fisher $25 million to get on-the-job training with the Knicks. But to Jackson, Fisher was one of His Guys, out of the cult of the triangle, and Phil.

A LOOK AT POTENTIAL CANDIDATES TO BECOME KNICKS COACH

The Knicks fire Derek Fisher on Monday.Brandon Dill/AP

The Knicks fire Derek Fisher on Monday.

ISOLA: JACKSON FIRING FISHER A LOSS, THIBODEAU WOULD BE WIN

Steve Kerr, who showed you how smart about basketball he was, had turned Jackson down so he could go coach Steph Curry and a championship team in Oakland. Kerr was also one of Phil’s Guys. And don’t compare him to Fisher, because Kerr had spent time running the Suns before he became an NBA coach.

So Fisher is gone. Kurt Rambis, another of Phil’s Guys, is the interim coach. And Phil tells Knicks fans on Monday that here is what he’s looking for in the next coach of the Knicks: “Someone…to match the style of the way we do things.”

As if there is now some Knicks’ way of doing things. As if we are witnessing some sort of culture change. We aren’t. The Knicks keep losing, and try to rebuild with Porzingis, some solid second-unit players, and a first-unit that has three guys over the age of 30 on it.

You want to know one of the reasons why Fisher is gone? Because he actually started questioning Jackson, who occasionally sounds like someone longing for the days of the VHS and eight-track players as he talks about the triangle, which might work like gangbusters here if he still had the young Michael Jordan or the young Kobe Bryant flourishing in it, the way they would have flourished in the picket-fence play that Hickory High ran in “Hoosiers.”

You know how people figure this out, whether they’re still showing big loyalty to the Knicks and still paying big money to show up at the Garden: By watching the games. And wondering why we’re still even talking about the triangle, instead of talking about finding the best available coach to come here and coach to the talent in the room, which is what Red Holzman, Jackson’s mentor, once did.

PHIL JACKSON’S COACHING TREE FILLED WITH ROTTEN BRANCHES

Knicks interim head coach Kurt Rambis and Kristaps Porzingis.Al Bello/Getty Images

Knicks interim head coach Kurt Rambis and Kristaps Porzingis.

Oh, and Knicks fans probably wonder something else about Phil Jackson: Whether he is about to become part of the revolving door of executives and coaches with the Knicks. On the day Jackson fired his first coach, and one of His Guys, as coach, Jackson’s record as a Knicks’ executive was 40-96, same as Fisher’s. Isiah Thomas’ record as general manager, over his first 136 games, was 62-74.

You go back to the wisdom of the late, great George Young, who was a great sports executive with the Giants, on this: It’s time for the guru to start guru-ing. Or at least start Zen mastering.

When Porzingis turned out to be such a find, and such a talent, it was fair to think that the Knicks’ luck had turned. But has it, as they are about to burn through another year of Carmelo Anthony’s prime? Take a look at the Celtics’ roster and their starting five and ask yourself if you think they’re loaded. But they are nearly 10 games better than the Knicks in the standings, because Danny Ainge didn’t go hire one of His Guys to coach the team, someone who had to embrace Celtic Pride, he just went and got Brad Stevens from Butler, who might be the best coach on the planet right now.

The Knicks need to win some games the rest of the way, and make a run at the playoffs, if Knicks fans are supposed to buy into the cult of Phil. Then Jackson doesn’t need to hire another one of His Guys. Just the best guy. Or Knicks’ fans will think this is the big bamboozle after all. The record that got Derek Fisher fired? Phil Jackson has the same one.

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Tags:
phil jackson ,
derek fisher ,
new york knicks ,
nba

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