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Sometimes, the tabloids' obsession with the Knicks is a good thing ... like now.
While the Daily News is portraying the triangle-obsessed Phil Jackson as the "nutty professor," and there are conflicting messages about who the Knicks did or did not talk with about their coaching vacancy, Sean Marks is the first GM to hire a coach. It's all about building a culture.
As Mitch Lawrence writes Tuesday...
Even if Marks had gone to the grid-locked corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues and announced he was bringing in Atkinson, who has been praised across the league for his development of Jeremy Lin, Kent Bazemore and other players as well as his grasp of X’s and O’s, there’s a good chance no one would have noticed.
That’s because Phil Jackson has been making a spectacle of himself in recent days. After a 50-loss season that produced only a glimmer of hope in Kristaps Porzingis, the Knicks president chastised the media for making it harder to attract free-agent recruits and scolded those who forgot that he had won 11 championships
And while Jackson was tweeting out denials that he's spoken to anyone about anything, there's no evidence Marks even has a Twitter account!
"There is hope for New York basketball once you consider that Sean Marks, out of Auckland, New Zealand, has been in town for only the last 60 days," Lawrence concludes.
Of course, now it's all about the players.