NEW YORK — First-year New York Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said he hasn’t been surprised by any of the off-court drama that he’s dealt with in his first three-plus months on the job.
“I kind of, not was warned, but it was expected that it was going to be something all the time,” Hornacek said on Wednesday before the Knicks hosted the Los Angeles Clippers. “And it’s lived up to the billing. It’s been something all year. So, OK, let’s go play a game and try to win.”
The latest Knicks drama came Tuesday when team president Phil Jackson took another public shot at star forward Carmelo Anthony in a tweet on Tuesday, when Jackson referenced a column published on Bleacher Report that was critical of Anthony.
Jackson has — directly or indirectly — delivered several critiques of Anthony this season. He and the Knicks have also shopped Anthony to other teams in trade talks.
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Phil Jackson suggested in a tweet that he agrees with a Bleacher Report column in which Carmelo Anthony is portrayed as a player without the winning mentality of Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.
The team president’s constant public tweaking of Carmelo Anthony could end up hurting the Knicks’ chances in free agency.
Knicks star Carmelo Anthony said after a loss to the Cavaliers that the trade rumors around him are testing his will but that he is getting “stronger throughout the process.”
Hornacek acknowledged that Jackson’s tweet on Tuesday was a distraction but said that he didn’t believe it sidetracked the Knicks, who were 22-31 entering Wednesday’s game against the Clippers.
“I’m kind of like these guys on our team. Everything that gets out there you’re going, ‘OK, whatever.’ Hopefully it’s not a distraction for our guys, and our focus is on the games and what we need to do at practice,” Hornacek said. “We came in this morning, there really wasn’t much talk about it at all, I think, from the guys. This morning, they were focused on the game, and that’s really what we’re trying to aim at. We got to get back and win some games.
“Stuff that comes out with Phil and Carmelo, Carmelo handles it great. He’s handled it great the whole year. When he gets out on the court, he’s just playing. He was focused this morning. So that’s our biggest concern.”
The column Jackson referenced in Tuesday’s tweet details the Anthony-Jackson dynamic and questions Anthony’s desire to win by concluding that Jackson and the Knicks, in part, “can’t want for Anthony what he doesn’t want deeply enough for himself.”
Jackson references Michael Graham in his tweet, a talented player from Georgetown whom Jackson coached in the Continental Basketball Association. Graham and Jackson got into an argument in the middle of a game on New Year’s Eve in 1986, according to a profile of Graham in The Washingtonian. Days after the incident, Jackson’s team, the Albany Patroons, released Graham.
Jackson referenced Graham in his memoir, according to The Washingtonian, noting that he had difficulty reaching him.
“Nothing I said made any difference,” Jackson wrote. “Whenever I tried to talk to him, his eyes would glaze over and he’d retreat to some dark inner corner nobody could penetrate.”
That Jackson compared Graham to Anthony, whom Jackson re-signed to a five-year, $124 million contract in the summer of 2014, is jarring, particularly given that it was published at a time when the Knicks are shopping Anthony.
Anthony, a 13-year veteran, has a no-trade clause and would have to agree to waive that clause before a trade can be completed.
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