Former Lakers head coach and 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson may not be done coaching. After retiring from the Lakers following the team’s untimely sweep at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, Jackson took the year off to have surgery and recover from several persisting ailments that had been bothering him.
Now, Jackson told HBO’s Real Sports that he is willing to consider offers from other teams. In an interview that is scheduled to air on Tuesday and obtained by the O.C. Register, Jackson states that there were several teams that he had been linked to but had no real intention of going there. One such job was in New York coaching the Knicks.
Jackson calls the Knicks’ roster “clumsy” because their players “don’t fit well together.”
Amare Stoudemire needs “to play in a certain system and a way,” he said. “Carmelo (Anthony) has to be a better passer. The ball can’t stop every time it hits his hands.”
When asked about Orlando Jackson said that the job was too far from his homes in Montana and Los Angeles, and that he prefers the western United States.
Jackson did hint that he’s interested in returning to the NBA at some point, possibly even as a front office executive. Whether or not he does return to an NBA sideline in the future is obviously up in the air, but don’t put anything past the legendary coach. Is there a job that might lure Jackson back to the grind?
“There might be.”
