NBA News 2016: Knicks President Phil Jackson Reacts To Ex-Head Coach Derek Fisher's Firing
Former professional basketball player turned New York Knicks head coach Derek Fisher was recently released from his post.
The announcement was made on Monday, naming former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Kurt Rambis as his interim successor for the rest of the season. In a report by Broderick Turner for the Los Angeles Times, Knicks President Phil Jackson explained his reason on why he decided to make such a move.
"It's time for us to make a change, turn this team around and move forward and get some wins and keep going down the road we had started here at the beginning of the year," Jackson said.
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Ironically, Fisher also played for Jackson under the Los Angeles Lakers franchise, when both men worked together as player and coach from 1999-2004.
The said move by Knicks management, which ultimately was a call of Jackson's, created many questions as to why it was done. Apart from the Knicks' subpar performance for the season, so far, many believe that it was Fisher's failure to execute things the way Jackson intended them for as the main reason.
One of the beliefs was that Fisher did not run Jackson's patented triangle offense, a method he has used with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively, which did lead to a good amount of success.
Jackson did respond in a report by Stefan Bondy for the New York Daily News, noting that the coach has to "match the style" of how they do things.
"And there's a certain style that I have that I think that works and have found to work before. I don't know if all those people measure up to that because I don't know them enough," Jackson said.
Fisher was signed as the Knicks' head coach in June 2014, in a five-year, $25 million deal. Some of his accomplishments as a coach were the acquisition of superstar Carmelo Anthony and the drafting of current rookie hotshot Kristaps Porzingis.
The Knicks currently hold a record of 23-32, placing them at the 12th spot at the Eastern Conference standings.
