Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach and current president of the New York Knicks Phil Jackson has always been known to make interesting comments regarding his players.
Many times people are not sure why he makes the comments he makes, but he has won an NBA record 11 championships as a head coach, including five with the Lakers, so no one really questioned the things he said.
The 71-year-old has made a few interesting statements this year, most notably calling LeBron James and his friends a ‘posse’ which many people believe has a bad connotation.
He also recently criticized one of the Knicks best players, Carmelo Anthony, for no apparent reason as he said that Anthony’s isolation style of play stall’s the team’s offense.
Lakers current head coach Luke Walton played a number of seasons with Jackson as his head coach, and ahead of the matchup with the Knicks on Sunday night Walton said that Jackson’s comments about Anthony didn’t surprise him, via Bill Oram of the OC Register:
“He’s been saying stuff to get people upset ever since I’ve known him,” Walton said. “So, no, it doesn’t surprise me.”
Walton believes that Jackson has a purpose for everything he says, though:
“Phil’s a unique individual that does a lot of things that people don’t understand. But he normally has a good reason or purpose behind stuff,” Walton said.
Anthony was confused as to why Jackson, his own boss, made those comments about him and apparently sought advice from Lakers legend Kobe Bryant about how to deal with the criticism.
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There were recently some rumors about Jackson possibly returning to the Lakers as an executive, but the Knicks have played much better basketball since then winning eight of their last 11 games.