There are few remnants of the team Phil Jackson left in place as the Knicks have worked diligently to erase nearly every reminder of that time in franchise history. But one of the gambles that Jackson took appeared at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, displaying the sort of promise that Jackson had hoped to get from him.
Derrick Rose was a twist in Jackson’s rebuilding plan for the Knicks, a trade that didn’t pay off as he spent one strange season in New York, arriving with the cloud of sexual assault charges that kept him in court much of the preseason, and including a one-game disappearance when he contemplated retiring rather than returning to the team.