Phil Jackson has to ‘resist urge’ to interrupt Derek Fisher’s practice

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When Phil Jackson was hired by the New York Knicks to be the team’s president of basketball operations, he brought his zen culture and triangle to New York with him.

After missing out on his first choice for head coach–Steve Kerr, who accepted a better offer from the Golden State Warriors–Jackson brought on former player Derek Fisher.

Just months removed from the court, Fisher now strolls the sideline. The Knicks started practice this week, and while it is Fisher as head coach, the team president has found it hard to break out of old habits.

As Marc Berman of the New York Post reports, Jackson has remained mostly silent when he wants to speak up, but it hasn’t been easy.

"“Sitting there a couple of hours, you attentively stay in tune with what’s going on out there,’’ Jackson said. “But there are times you want to get up and want to say something and you resist. Let them feel their way out there.”Did he fight the urge?“I didn’t fight it,’’ Jackson said. “At times I actually got up. I just got up and walked it out [without talking].’’"

Many already believe that Fisher is just running the day-to-day operations of being a head coach, and that it is Jackson installing the system to match his personnel and doing things coaches typically do like installing a game plan and making adjustments. Jackson made the lesson plan, and Fisher is teaching it.

Even though it can be a complicated way of doing things, it might be the best way right now. Fisher has no coaching experience, so easing him into the job in this way might be more smart than egotistical by Jackson.

Some might say: “Well then why not just make Fisher an assistant until he is ready to take over as head coach?” To that, I say if you know you want Fisher as coach, why wait? That puts the stop-gap coach in an awkward predicament.

Because Jackson wants Fisher as coach, this is the only way to do it. But for Fisher to grow into his position, Jackson will have to bite his tongue and give him room.

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