It’s been over five months since the New York Knicks fired Phil Jackson as team’s president of basketball operations. The Knicks have found Jackson’s successor in former team vice president Steve Mills, but if it were all up to team owner James Dolan, NBA legend Jerry West would be the one serving as team president following the whole Jackson saga. Unfortunately for Dolan, West turned down his request, and instead opted to go to the Pacific coast for another job, per Mitch Lawrence of Sporting News.
They were not team owner James Dolan’s first choice. Dolan had one of his most trusted allies, entertainment executive Irving Azoff, talk to Jerry West to see if the NBA legend wanted to take over for Jackson last June, league sources with knowledge of the discussions told Sporting News. Azoff brought Dolan and Jackson together in 2014, but in this instance, West told Azoff that the time wasn’t right to come to New York. Instead he opted to settle into an advisory role to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
It would have been some sort of a slap in the face for Jackson had Dolan’s plan of replacing him with The Logo come to fruition. Jackson and West didn’t exactly see each other eye to eye and frequently bickered over not being on the same page when the two were still the head coach and general manager, respectively, of the Los Angeles Lakers several years ago.
Mills, along with general manager Scott Perry, hasn’t looked bad in fulfilling their roles so far, however. While the free acquisition of Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency was highly questioned, the trade of Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder seems to be reaping the Knicks dividends thanks to the good play of Enes Kanter.
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