Fansided

The case for the NBA forcibly taking over the Knicks

By Rory Masterson

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Phil Jackson looks on during his introductory press conference as President of the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Phil Jackson looks on during his introductory press conference as President of the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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To the simultaneous surprise of everyone and absolute surprise of no one, a report broke earlier today that Knicks president Phil Jackson had not ruled out trading acknowledged future of the franchise Kristaps Porzingis, a basketball unicorn which other teams amass draft picks in the hopes of landing. Of course, Knicks fans became upset on the Internet. Of course, Phil Jackson didn’t care, continuing his tour of trigonometric vengeance against social acceptability and basic functionality within a position.

Given the culture of utter chaos that the Knicks espouse, this is not the end-times, if only because the Knicks have been seemingly exhibiting a post-apocalyptic view of the world since the end of the Patrick Ewing era (which was, of course, by their own hand). The degree of incompetence to which Jackson has reached during his time with the team, however, is a much whiter shade of pale.

An eleven-time champion as a head coach, Jackson has shown near-complete ineptitude in this role. Jackson has feuded publicly with incumbent star Carmelo Anthony, the seemingly logical endgame of which being that the former would be ready to hand the keys to Porzingis completely should the latter be traded. His best moves include signing Robin Lopez and trading for youth as well as drafting Porzingis. As early as, oh, I don’t know, the time I finish typing this sentence, all of those could be undone.

James Dolan’s run with the Knicks, which began right at the start of this millennium, is as depressing and almost comically inept as is conceivable, yet the NBA has little leverage with regard to a Donald Sterling-like takeover. For all his lack of scruples, and Jackson’s clear, stated ignorance of the game of basketball as it is in 2017, neither has overstepped a legal or distinctly moral bound.

Is this alienation of another star the last straw? An argument could be made that both Dolan and Jackson are unfairly influencing competitive balance simply by being vocally and noticeably horrible in their positions, but that is tenuous, and anyway, no other owner is going to support the ousting of an owner reducing competition for their own team. Being that Dolan has stuck with Jackson this far, and that the NBA has stuck with Dolan thus far, it seems unlikely. The hypothetical, then, raises the question of what would provoke the league to take action.

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An NBA takeover of the Knicks would likely result in cries of East Coast bias, should the Knicks go on to achieve moderate success. Such brushback would ignore the fact that nearly anyone involved in any other organization (basketball, sports management, equestrian medicine, etc.) would likely do a better job. But then, anyone complaining about the current state of the Knicks still has to watch them nearly 30 times a year on national television.

As long as James Dolan and Phil Jackson are in charge, it seems, we all must suffer.

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