The Phil Jackson era of the New York Knicks continues to provide the basketball world with non-stop embarrassments. In an interview with ESPN, the Knicks president described LeBron James’s business associates as his “posse”. That resulted in strong rebukes from not just James but also Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks’ star player.

It didn’t take long for James’s camp to respond to Jackson’s comments. James’s business manager Maverick Carter took to Twitter to respond to Jackson’s use of the loaded term “posse.”



“I don’t care that he talks about LeBron,” Carter said. “He could say he’s not that good or the greatest in the world as a basketball player. I wouldn’t care. It’s the word ‘posse’ and the characterization I take offense to. If he would have said LeBron and his agent, LeBron and his business partners or LeBron and his friends, that’s one thing. Yet because you’re young and black, he can use that word. We’re grown men.”

James first reacted to Jackson’s comments by merely saying that he lost respect for the former coach of Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls. It was at this point that the conversation surrounding this story degenerated into “LeBron James says that Phil Jackson is racist,” which wasn’t really accurate or particularly fair to either party. As Anthony took pains to point out, he didn’t know whether the racial tinge in Jackson’s use of the term “posse” was intentional or not. What does seem to be beyond debate is that Jackson was using the word “posse” to belittle James and his associates and that it wasn’t the first time he’s employed the word to take a clear shot at James.

ESPN’s Rachel Nichols posted an excerpt from Jackson’s book The Last Season, about his time with the 2004 Los Angeles Lakers, where he chided James for heading into the NBA straight out of high school: “The young men grow so dependent on their posse’s (sic), who fetch their cars and their girls, that they can’t possibly develop into mature, self-sufficient human beings. One day, I’m convinced we’ll find out the true extent of the psychological damage that’s being caused.”

There’s a lot happening here in this passage, but what’s most striking is that Jackson is currently describing one of the most powerful and influential individuals in American sports, and several highly successful businessmen, with the same language he used to describe him as a teenage prodigy hanging out with hypothetical hanger-ons. There is someone here whose attitude and views haven’t matured properly in the last 12 years – and it’s definitely not James.

Of course, maybe Jackson is just trapped in the past. That would explain a lot, most notably why he keeps trying to push his outdated Triangle Offense on his team despite consistent, universal pushback from his players and coaches. It would also explain why his big offseason moves were making a trade with the Chicago Bulls for injury-prone Derrick Rose, who they expected to be their starting point guard, and then handing Joakim Noah, who has already been benched, a four-year, $72m contract.



Who could blame Jackson for preferring to live in his phenomenally successful past rather than the depressing reality? As Adrian Wojnarowski has pointed out, under Jackson’s “leadership,” the Knicks have gone 53-121, and have only shown the tiniest signs of improvement. By all accounts, the organization is nearly as dysfunctional as it has ever been and it seems unlikely that Anthony’s public rebuke of his boss will help. If it weren’t for the surprising success of Kristaps Porzingis, the Knicks future would be as bleak as the present.



It’s likely Jackson will be long gone when and if the Knicks ever do manage to turn things around. In fact, he could opt out of his contract at the end of the season, a possibility that sounds more and more likely each time Jackson publicly denies that he will.



Maybe the fact that Jackson is in the midst of the biggest failure of his professional career explains why he felt the need to take a shot at LeBron. In 2014, Jackson returned to New York, where his NBA career began, with the hopes of returning the franchise to its former glory. Instead, the team has been mired in mediocrity, unable to attract major free agents or even his first choice for head coach.



While Jackson was grappling with the difficulties of his situation, James returned to Cleveland and accomplished something even tougher: the city’s first championship since 1964. More than that, the Cavaliers succeeded with a roster that James himself helped to put together. It can’t be much fun for Jackson to deal with the fact than an active player more than half his age is already a more successful GM than he is. Insecurity is a strange emotion, one that hits those with the biggest egos the hardest, and sometimes not even 11 championship rings aren’t enough to combat it.