DJ COMMUNITY

Phil Jackson 'could' regret calling LeBron's friends a 'posse,' but he doesn't

Ball Don't LieDec 7, 2016, 12:45 AM

Knicks president Phil Jackson is being cryptic again. (AP)

Three weeks after referring to LeBron James’ friends and business partners as his “posse,” sparking a backlash from the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar over what he took as the disrespectful use of racially coded language, New York Knicks president Phil Jackson offered his first public comments on the matter during a television interview aired Tuesday. He didn’t exactly fall all over himself trying to make amends.

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Jackson joined the CBS Network show “We Need to Talk,” and prompted by panelist and Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie to discuss the LeBron issue ahead of Wednesday’s nationally televised showdown between the Cavs and the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, talk he did:

“That’s a topic I’m not going to discuss because one, we are not supposed to discuss other teams’ players in this position that I have here. So I violated one of the tenets of our thing. […]

“The obvious thing is, the word itself carries connotation. And I just don’t understand that, that part of it — the word. So I guess word choice could be something I could regret. But talking about other teams’ players, that’s out of the box.”

For what it’s worth, it’s good to hear that Jackson now understands that it’s improper for team executives to publicly discuss players who are under contract with other teams. Sure, you’d think he might have absorbed that at some previous point during the nearly 50 years he’s been involved in the NBA as a player, coach or team president. But hey, better late than never, right?

What’s less great, though, is Jackson continuing to say that he just doesn’t understand the “connotation” that came with the words he chose to use in recounting a LeBron story during a November interview with ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan:

It had to hurt [the Miami Heat] when they lost LeBron. That was definitely a slap in the face. But there were a lot of little things that came out of that. When LeBron was playing with the Heat, they went to Cleveland and he wanted to spend the night. They don’t do overnights. Teams just don’t. So now [coach Erik] Spoelstra has to text Riley and say, ‘What do I do in this situation?’ And Pat, who has iron-fist rules, answers, ‘You are on the plane, you are with this team.’ You can’t hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland.

I always thought Pat had this really nice vibe with his guys. But something happened there where it broke down. I do know LeBron likes special treatment. He needs things his way.

For what it’s worth, Spoelstra’s take on the matter prior to the Knicks’ Tuesday night victory over the Heat, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel: “I honestly just think [Phil] gets bored and likes to throw stuff out there and get everybody all fired up.” Sounds about right.

It’s worth noting, as many did after Jackson’s remarks were published, that “LeBron” and “posse” had collided in a Zen Master context once before — in a passage on LeBron in Jackson’s 2004 book, “The Last Season.”

(Here’s where we remind you that James recently won his second Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year award, which seems like a decent indication that he’s doing OK on the maturity and adulthood front.)

After the publication of the ESPN interview, James’ former high school basketball teammate and longtime business partner, Maverick Carter, called Phil on the carpet over his condescending turn of phrase.

“I don’t care that he talks about LeBron,” Carter told ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin. “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.