Carmelo Anthony Details Missed Opportunity with Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal’s Coach

Phil Jackson was the President of Basketball Operations for the New York Knicks and had Carmelo Anthony as his leading superstar.

Carmelo Anthony Details Missed Opportunity with Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal’s Coach

Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson (Image via FirstSportz)

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Phil Jackson was the architect of the 6 NBA championships Michael Jordan won with the Chicago Bulls, and then another 3 when Shaquille O’Neal was with the Los Angeles Lakers. After leaving the latter, he went to preside over Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks.

Jackson had no intention to leave the Lakers, as he was dating owner Jeanie Buss and was already making the moves necessary to be the one in power.

One of those moves was to push out the great Jerry West, as the head coach often clashed with him. His decision was vindicated when he again led Kobe Bryant to two more titles. Even after being engaged with Buss, he was not called back to the organization, as his fiancé’s brother was in charge of basketball operations, who decided against bringing back Jackson.

That led the former power forward to join the New York Knicks as their President of Basketball Operations. But that was his strong suit.

I respect you as the coach of the game. You the President of the team. Talking bad about the team. If the team is not good, then who does the bullets go to?.. It’s an easier scapegoat to point me out than it is to just man up and say, ‘You know what, my tenure here wasn’t great at all. I should’ve came down there and coached.‘

Carmelo Anthony said on The Big Podcast with Shaq

The Hall of Famer felt that it was not right for Phil Jackson to diss the team when he was the one who almost created it. That is why Anthony believes the President should have come down to coach his team.

Carmelo Anthony wanted Phil Jackson to coach

Phil Jackson’s time as the President of the Knicks was not a successful one, even though he had a future Hall of Famer and a unicorn in his building. Instead, Carmelo Anthony wanted the great coach to get back with the clipboard.

Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony during their Knicks tenure
Jackson and Anthony during their Knicks tenure (Image via Basket Infos/X)

I would want nothing more than Phil Jackson to come out of the front office, and he should coach this team.

Carmelo Anthony said

The 10-time All-Star regrets not getting the opportunity to be coached by one of the greatest to manage an NBA team. Instead of overseeing the roster developments, Jackson would have had an even bigger impact leading them.

Instead, towards the end of his tenure, he garnered a lot of backlash for trying to buy out Anthony’s contract. That was the tipping point of their relationship, which led to Jackson losing his job, and the star forward also leaving the Knicks.

Carmelo Anthony reveals Phil Jackson’s double standards

From the conversation he was having with comedian Hasan Minhaj and Shaquille O’Neal, Carmelo Anthony was detailing how he did not like Phil Jackson’s double standards.

You can’t give Derek Fisher and throw him under the bus like that.

Carmelo Anthony said

The New York native felt that the famed head coach should not have brought on one of his best understudies to then throw him under the bus and eventually fire him. It seems as if Anthony was pointing out how Jackson’s constant criticism, interference, and hypocrisy compounded matters within the team.

Had he just coached them, both their time’s with the Knicks could have turned out to be a lot different from how they ended. It seems the 41-year-old felt a championship was possible.

They had players who could fuel a run for the title, but Jackson famously traded away most of those pieces. Some of those pieces eventually helped LeBron James win the 1st title in Cleveland Cavaliers history.

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