New York Knicks president Phil Jackson was slapped with a fine by the NBA for commenting that Ohio State freshman D’Angelo Russell is a great looking kid and a great prospect.
The league did not specify the amount of the fine it has meted on Phil Jackson. Under the NBA rules, team personnel are not allowed to publicly discuss players who are not yet eligible for the NBA draft, notes the Chicago Tribune.
Maybe Jackson’s excitement got the better of him after watching the Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 81-57 on March 4 that he was not able to contain his remark about Russell.
With the Knicks NBA-worst 12-47 win-loss record and the team’s considerable salary cap space, New York is up for a major rebuilding in the next season. And Phil Jackson seems to be helping out in the personal scouting of prospective Knick players too.
If there’s any consolation to the Knicks getting the worst record after the current season, it’s the fact that the team will have the chance to get the top draft pick, which would certainly complement the team’s effort to pursue big name free agents in the NBA during the off-season.
Jackson has already been fined by the NBA last year for saying that Derek Fisher was a good choice to become the next coach of the New York Knicks even though the veteran point guard was still playing with the Oklahoma City Thunder then.
The Knicks president drew a $25,000 fine from the NBA back then but eventually, the team landed Derek Fisher as its new head coach beginning with the current NBA season.
Word of advice
Former Knicks president Donnie Walsh, who is now a consultant with the Indiana Pacers, believes that Phil Jackson is doing the team rebuilding in the proper manner, cites the NY Daily News.
When Walsh was president of the Knicks, he was also entrusted to break down the team roster to free up significant salary cap space and reload it eventually with star players. That was when the New York Knicks got Amar’e Stoudemire first and then Carmelo Anthony.
Walsh believes that Phil Jackson will be with the Knicks for the next five years and is optimistic that he would do well because the man is a basketball person who can really build a good team.
He believes that New York will continue to be an appealing destination for the NBA’s free agents during the off-season because of the presence of Jackson in the basketball operations of the franchise.
As a word of advice to Jackson however, Walsh said that the Zen master should not just focus on getting great players from the free agency, he should also pick up good players along the way. Walsh believes that in every great team, great players should always be complemented by good players all the time to make for a winning system.