One reason that Knicks owner James Dolan hired Phil Jackson as team president was for his championship credentials, but Jackson’s winning pedigree hasn’t translated thus far in selling the players on the triangle offense, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “When I played, the credibility Phil and his staff had came when he walked in the door,’’ coach Derek Fisher said. “We were all intrigued in wanting to figure it out, knowing they won championships doing this. We wanted to figure out how to win championships within this format. In recent years, Phil wasn’t coaching and there weren’t any teams running this system. So these current players can’t say this team won a championship last year or two years ago doing it.”
Here’s more out of NYC:
- Iman Shumpert says that his new team, the Cavaliers, remind him of of the Knicks circa 2012/13, Berman writes in a separate piece. “It’s going to be different,’’ Shumpert said. “I think it will be like my second year when we had Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Tyson Chandler. We had a lot of different guys who did a lot of different things.’’
- Shumpert also relayed that he’s happy to be on a Cavs team that is likely to make the playoffs, something that the 5-34 Knicks have little chance at, Berman adds. “Of course everybody wants to win and be in the playoffs and compete more,” Shumpert said. “I didn’t want my season to end early. There’s work to do here, too. We definitely are going to get to work.’’
- With the Knicks’ season all but over, Anthony has to believe that New York’s front office has a plan that will work, Michael Lee of The Washington Post writes. “When I first committed back to New York, that was something I always said: I had to trust that them guys know what they’re doing and believe in them guys. And that was one of the reasons I wanted to come back,” Anthony said. “Here’s an opportunity with the trust. Everything starts now.”