Shaq maintains that his former coach, Phil Jackson, could’ve been successful with the New York Knicks. It’s all the player’s fault.
It’s been months since Phil Jackson’s been an employee of the New York Knicks but talk of his triangle offense won’t go away. This time it’s coming from former Jackson player Shaquille O’Neal.Back in March, Shaq defended the triangle that helped him and Kobe Bryant win three championships with the Lakers. He said the system “works” and the Knicks needed to give up their old habits for it to work. Many people assumed that he was alluding to Carmelo Anthony.
Seven months later, with Jackson now unemployed, Shaq has grown harsher. According to Ian Begley of ESPN, O’Neal blamed the players for not buying into Jackson’s system.
Shaq claimed that if the team had bought into the system, things would’ve been much different. The Hall of Famer even praised Jackson’s acquisitions of Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. You won’t find many people still doing that.
It’s easy for Shaq to praise an offense that was dominant when it featured four Hall of Famers. The bottom line is that it wasn’t right for the modern game and Jackson didn’t care.