The New York Knicks’ dance with Phil Jackson, despite previous reports, seemingly won’t end soon.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
As I reported in column, still no assurance an agreement will be reached. No one in Jackson's world thinks deal is "close," that's for sure.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 11, 2014
There is a theory Jackson is just negotiating with the Knicks in order to secure a job with a better-positioned team – AKA a team that’s not in danger of losing its best player this summer, not capped out, not void of so many future first-round picks – AKA any other team.
If that’s the case, it makes sense Jackson delays the deal. He must give other teams, the Lakers or otherwise, a chance to realize he’s in demand and respond with their own offers.
Maybe becoming the Knicks’ president would be Jackson’s fallback option, or maybe he’s just posturing interest. Either way, if he’s at least eying a better job, he must wait this out.
For the Knicks, they’d probably want to get Jackson acclimated as long before the draft and offseason as possible. So, if they want Jackson, they should apply a little pressure to get this done sooner than later. But there’s no guarantee they’ll do what makes sense, anyway.
