The New York Knicks are in the third season of the Phil Jackson regime. Jackson’s tenure as team president has yielded polarizing results, but for as much blame as he deserves, he also deserves the benefit of context.
The context of the Jackson Era is that he inherited a broken team that needed to be rebuilt—a rebuild he wasn’t given the tools to execute.
It was the previous regime that blew up the roster to acquire Carmelo Anthony—a trade that cost New York its young core and its 2014 first-round draft pick. It was also the previous regime that traded a 2016 first-round draft pick and a 2014 second-round selection for Andrea Bargnani.