The New York Knicks are reportedly expected to part ways with president Phil Jackson early Wednesday morning.
To quote Ron Burgundy: “Boy, that escalated quickly.”Mere hours after Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported that James Dolan was “weighing the future” of Phil Jackson, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne dropped a bomb of the Woj variety on us.
The Zen Master and the Knicks are expected to part ways early Wednesday morning.
This comes after Dolan picked up the option for the final two years on Jackson’s contract.
Also, it’s less than six months removed from Dolan’s appearance on the Michael Kay Show when he gave Jackson a public ringing endorsement.
Per Shelburne, the talks between Jackson and Dolan accelerated when the team decided they wouldn’t buy out Carmelo Anthony‘s contract.
Dolan overplayed his hand with Melo. Who would have thought that insulting your star player repeatedly in the media and on Twitter would have repercussions?
This is the NBA after all.
Jackson wasn’t going to stay past the two years left on his deal. Everybody knew that. He had checked out a long time ago. The debate will rage on forever as to whether or not he ever checked in at all.
The Melo nonsense has been going on for months. It must have been the public trade discussions about Kristaps Porzingis that finally got Dolan’s attention.
According to Ian Begley of ESPN New York, some people close to Dolan have been pushing for him to consider firing Jackson for much of the season. I guess the billionaire owner finally listened.