Phil Jackson made an oopsie in the first trade he negotiated as President of the New York Knicks. And he’s owning up to it.
The trade in question is the one that landed the Knicks Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Cleanthony Early, Shane Larkin and two second-round picks in exchange for shipping Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks. Jackson apparently had the opportunity to acquire Jae Crowder in that deal, but he decided to pass, as he told Charley Rosen in the latest edition of The Phil Jackson Chronicles for Today’s Fastbreak:
“I don’t consider hiring Fish a mistake because he worked hard and got the guys to stay as positive as possible while the losses piled up. I think the biggest mistake I made was actually this…One of the first deals I engineered when I came back to New York was to trade Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington, Samuel Dalembert, plus a second-round pick that the Mavs owed to the Celtics. In talking with Boston, I was given the option of taking that pick or else taking Jae Crowder. I liked Crowder but I thought he wouldn’t get much of a chance to play behind Carmelo, so I took the pick which turned out to be Cleanthony Early. While Cleanthony has missed lots of time in the past two seasons with us, he still has the potential to be a valuable player. Even so, I should have taken Crowder.
Kudos to the Zen Master for copping to what is, in hindsight, clearly a mistake. But that’s just the thing: We have the benefit of hindsight. Jackson did not. Crowder wasn’t even close to a known commodity before the 2014-15 season. He couldn’t consistently crack the rotation in Dallas. It wasn’t until he broke out midway through the 2014-15 season with the Celtics that he started being viewed as a stud. And even then, it took many people outside Boston longer to appreciate him—close to all of the 2015-16 campaign, in fact.
The thing I don’t really understand here is why the Celtics were involved at all. The Knicks ended up with Boston’s second-round pick (No. 34) that they owed the Mavericks, so I’m not sure why Phil would have needed to talk with the Celtics about Crowder. Perhaps I’m missing something there.
At any rate, Jackson’s mistake isn’t necessarily passing on Crowder; it’s why he passed on him. Assuming that Early could play alongside Carmelo Anthony, but Crowder couldn’t, is weird, borderline inexplicable and something that could end up haunting the Knicks organization for a few years—especially if Crowder ever snags an All-Star bid.
