According to the Orlando Sentinel, Phil Jackson had expressed interest in joining the Orlando Magic's front office as either the team president/general manager or as a consultant before withdrawing his name from consideration on Thursday afternoon.
Vincent was the intermediary between Jackson and Magic CEO Alex Martins in the negotiations, and was the person who presented Martins with Jackson's proposal.
That proposal supposedly was for Jackson to join the Magic in a capacity similar to the one that Pat Riley has with the Miami Heat. It also included bringing in a coach of Jackson's choosing (a former all-star player and Hall of Famer, according to the report) who would learn from the Zen Master and a group of assistants that likely would've included Frank Hamblen, Jim Cleamons, and Vincent.
The franchise was hoping to land the former 11-time NBA championship winning coach in their front office not only for the incredible wealth of basketball knowledge he possesses, but they also felt it would have greatly helped their chances to keep Dwight Howard in a Magic uniform.
However, despite the flirtations between the two sides, the Magic and Jackson won't be forming any type of relationship right now, which leads me back to the most in interesting part of Vincent's statement: "But in the end, Phil decided to go with another opportunity."
Does he mean another front office opportunity with another NBA franchise?
If so, which teams could potentially be trying to lure Jackson out of retirement?
The most intriguing potential landing spot, at least in my opinion, would be with the Charlotte Bobcats, where he would be teaming up with Michael Jordan once again in an effort to add more NBA titles to their Hall of Fame career totals.
While the Bobcats already have a general manager (Rich Cho), they don't currently have a head coach and are in the midst of a wide-ranging search for a new one.
Jackson could join the team in the role of a consultant, still bring in his own coaching staff, and join Cho in making the player personnel decisions for the team.
If the Zen Master could somehow do the seemingly impossible and turn the Bobcats into a championship contender after they just finished the worst season in the history of the NBA, he would cement himself as the greatest coach/GM ever.
Another interesting potential landing spot would be with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers currently have an opening at general manager, and while their list of candidates is supposedly down to David Morway, Neil Olshey (who is out of the running after re-signing with the Clippers on Friday), and Tony DiLeo, I'm pretty sure they'd open up their minds to the idea of Jackson joining their front office.
The Blazers have some great talent on their roster already with players like LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum, and with Jackson in the front office as a selling point, they would be in great position to lure free agents to come join their championship hunt.
It would also make geographical sense for Jackson to join the Trail Blazers, as he spends a majority of his time away from basketball in Montana, which is also in the Northwest and much closer to Portland than any other potential destination.
The only other real possibility that I could see Jackson entertaining for this upcoming season would be to join the New York Knicks front office as a consultant and see if he can help put together the pieces to their championship picture.
Jackson was a player with the Knicks the last time they won an NBA title and was rumored to be interested in the teams' head coaching position before they decided to sign interim coach Mike Woodson to a three-year extension.
Which team do you think has the best shot of landing the Zen Master? Share where you think Jackson will end up below in the comments section.
Portland makes sense. Portland has 2 lottery picks, lots of cap space, needs to select a new head coach, is geographically close to Montana, and has a uber rich owner who wants to win now and is willing to pay for it. Jackson gets control plus a carload of cash.
ReplyDeleteI'd be really surprised if they don't at least try to gauge Jackson's interest in the opening after it became public that he had interest in the Orlando job. I think he is one of the few people they could hire that would put them on that next level and have them at least contending for championships. You also brought up a great point about ownership having the money to make it happen.
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