Phil Jackson Won't Coach 'Clumsy' Knicks But Doesn't Rule Out Return to Sideline

Phil Jackson Won’t Coach ‘Clumsy’ Knicks But Doesn’t Rule Out Return to Sideline

by Associated Press on Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 1:17PM

NEW YORK — Phil Jackson says "there might be" an NBA job that would lure him out of retirement.

The 11-time NBA champion coach tells HBO's "Real Sports" that the Knicks and Magic openings this offseason were not the positions to bring him back to the bench. In an interview scheduled to air Tuesday night, Jackson confirms that New York, where he started his playing career, didn't contact him before removing the interim tag from Mike Woodson's title, but "I wasn't going to take the job, that's for sure."

Jackson calls the Knicks' roster "clumsy" because their players "don't fit well together."

Amare Stoudemire needs "to play in a certain system and a way," he said. "Carmelo [Anthony] has to be a better passer. The ball can't stop every time it hits his hands."

Asked whether that's the sort of situation he's successfully turned around in the past, Jackson says: "Yeah. Well, it didn't happen."

Jackson says he wasn't interested in Orlando because it's too far from his Montana home.

The 66-year-old says he's feeling better physically after knee replacement surgery in March. Jackson resigned from the Lakers for the second time after last season.