Savage Phil Jackson anecdotes from Woj’s Knicks podcast

Knicks reporter Ian Begley came on to Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast today, and didn’t hold back on criticizing Phil Jackson.

ESPN’s the Woj Pod brought on ESPN Knicks beat writer Ian Begley today to discuss various topics about the Knicks as a franchise, and what went wrong recently. Phil Jackson was of course mentioned many, many times, and let’s just say he might not appreciate what was said about him. Here are some of the most savage quotes that Begley said on the podcast:

When regarding how the implementation of the triangle offense failed for the Knicks, yet Jackson kept trying to force it upon his coaching staff and players, Begley stated:

"“He has this vision for how he wanted his team to play, and he didn’t do a good job of selling it”"

Then they discussed how Jackson didn’t make the best decisions to help right the ship for the organization, Begley stated:

"“He didn’t change the culture, he didn’t change a lot of the front office”"

Jackson made some questionable trades during his tenure, and gave some players a substantial amount of money that other teams weren’t willing to even consider doing. Begley didn’t hold back in this regard, citing a particular player that the Knicks had questionable hope for. He stated:

"“Sam Dalembert was the big piece that we were all talking about in New York, and a guy who never did much”"

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To finish the bashing of Jackson on the podcast, Woj and Begley discussed how things may have gone differently for Jackson and the Knicks, if he had played a different role in the front office. Begley stated:

"“If Phil was your brand, and you had other guys actually doing the work in these meetings, and then he just comes in and says “we need you here”, just to close out the deal. Things could have worked out better”"

Sorry, Phil.