After a futile month spent attempting to land his preferred coaching candidate—freshly appointed Golden State Warriors coach, Steve Kerr—Phil Jackson finally found his man. On Tuesday, in front of the media on the hardwood floor of the New York Knicks’ practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., Jackson ushered 18-year veteran Derek Fisher into the fold as the 26th head coach in franchise history.
Hired on March 18 to helm the organization that first drafted him, Jackson technically presided over the team’s final four weeks of 2013-14—spurring a late-season on-court revival. But the Zen Master wasn’t truly summoned to duty until April 21, when the fact that he had jettisoned incumbent coach Mike Woodson (and his staff) was made public.
The search to fill Woodson’s seat was Jackson’s first major opportunity to etch his philosophy into the faltering franchise and true to his identity, he neglected to cast a wide net, choosing to adhere to the trusted relationships of his own personal network.
That’s how he and the Knicks arrived at Fisher, who played for Jackson through his luminous Laker days and is armed with the résumé and respect necessary for the task at hand. At 39 years old, Fisher is, in relative terms, a battle-hardened yet baby-faced figure in the coaching community, having tied a bow on his playing career just two weeks ago in Oklahoma City.
The final chapter of that lengthy tale ended with an unceremonious exit in the Western Conference Finals amid crowding rumours of a possible permanent migration to the bench. Scott Brooks, Thunder coach and sideline lieutenant for three of Fisher’s 18 seasons in the league, deflected the noise in an interview with the New York Daily News by heaping praise onto his veteran guard.
“Derek will make a great head coach,” Brooks insisted, one month prior to Fisher’s hiring. “He’s smart, he knows the game and works hard. He’s also played for one of the greatest coaches in sports history… and I’m not talking about myself, by the way.”
New York will hope that Fisher’s arrival in the fabled halls of Madison Square Garden goes as well as Brooks predicted, yielding the kind of consistency, excellence and dedication he exemplified across 1,546 career games. On the floor, Fisher always stood taller than his modest (by NBA standards) six-foot-one frame and turned in countless clutch performances. What matters more to the Knicks, though, is the Jackson-Fisher tandem proving to be more than just a high-priced, chummy reunion of old friends.
Fisher, characteristically well dressed and forthcoming at his introductory press conference, obviously understands those concerns: “This is not for a ceremony, PR or for Phil and I to hang out and be friends.”
So what is it then?
A boisterous yet measured figure who cut his teeth providing scoring punch on a number of revered Laker squads, Fisher ticked all of Jackson’s boxes. He’s also not one to be ruffled by plying his trade in the unmistakable shadow of the Zen Master.
By hiring a man who apprenticed in his triangle offence for nine success-filled seasons, Jackson has freed himself up to be the team’s puppet master, fashioning its new identity while avoiding the day-to-day rigours of an 82-game schedule. And Fisher seems more than willing to welcome the knowledge and input of the team’s president.
“I don’t actually see the problem in having one of the greatest to ever do what you’re trying to do to want to come down and help you a little bit,” he said. “I don’t see it as being an issue potentially as maybe some other people may see it. I’m looking forward to that exchange.”
Fisher is—at least in the short term—responsible for a capped-out roster with a clear scarcity of resources. The Knicks’ seventh coach in the past nine years, he’ll be looking to clear the same locker room hurdles as his predecessors, but he’ll be trying to do so with zero prior experience. That won’t isolate Fisher among his newfound colleagues, though, as he’s following in the footsteps of Mark Jackson, Jason Kidd and Steve Kerr, all of whom transitioned to head coaching gigs without any history of sideline stewardship.
Fisher lands in New York City having diligently shaped a legacy as a championship-calibre teammate and former players’ association executive undaunted by the prospect of combatting league owners and officials. Handed a mandate to install a selfless on-court system at the Garden, officially tabled as a five-year project.
Hiring a close confidant and enthusiastic scholar of the triangle offence was the best thing Jackson could do short of commandeering the wayward ship himself—an option he openly and frequently opposed. A saving grace for the organization and its fans, the relationship between the team’s president and coach should deliver a level of understanding between the front office and sideline that can be rare in the NBA.
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