With Phil Jackson "itching" to come back to NBA, do Brooklyn Nets have the scratch?

Phil Jackson was last in the spotlight at the Knicks' recent celebration of their last championship. At the time, Jackson was asked about his interest in returning to the NBA. He politely demurred, saying it was "neither the time nor the place" to discuss his future.

Now, Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN report that Jackson is itching to get back in the NBA, and the assumption by the two writers is that Mikhail Prokhorov will pursue him to coach the Nets, as they did when Avery Johnson was canned back in December.

There's no speculation about whether Prokhorov be interested in the 13-time NBA champion as executive vice-president of the team. Should there be, considering that Jackson told long time pal Charley Rosen a few months ago that he "has no intention of ever coaching again" and told SI's Jack McCallum that "a vice president of basketball operations/director of player personnel is more like it?"

There has been some speculation that the Nets were one of "four or five" teams who asked Jackson to take a look at their club.

• Phil Jackson 'itching' to return to NBA as either coach or executive, sources say - Ramona Shelburne & Marc Stein - ESPN