Did Pete Carroll Break News That Phil Jackson Is Officially Headed to Knicks?
Legions of New York Knicks fans are waiting on pins and needles for news confirming the rumor that legendary head coach Phil Jackson is officially joining the organization.
Update: Tuesday, March 11 at 10:43 p.m. ET
It would appear there are some shenanigans going on at Madison Square Garden, as Marc Berman of the New York Post posted, then quickly deleted, an article stating that Jackson had made a verbal agreement with the Knicks, per SB Nation's Seth Rosenthal:
It's hard to know what to think until Jackson appears in an actual press conference.
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Maybe they should all start following Pete Carroll on Twitter.
The coach of the Seattle Seahawks took a break on Tuesday afternoon from the first day of NFL free agency (not to mention flaunting his recently won Vince Lombardi Trophy) to congratulate Jackson on accepting the job:
The only problem: Jackson has yet to officially accept the job. Conspiracy!
Do these two even know each other? A cursory search of the Internet shows no photos of the two together. But it seems likely the two coaches' paths could have crossed at least once in Los Angeles, where Carroll coached the USC Trojans football team from 2001 to 2009. Jackson manned the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers for eight of those nine years, taking only a brief sabbatical during the 2004-05 season.
The two coaches seem like kindred spirits in a way. Both live a very nonconformist lifestyle outside of the coaching arena and are known for their ability to reach young athletes despite their advanced age (Carroll is 62; Jackson is 68).
As USA Today's Nina Mandell deadpanned: "It's possible that Carroll has a direct line to Jackson. After all, wouldn't they exchange coaching tips or music recommendations or just tickets?"
What's more likely is that Carroll simply misread another news story or Twitter post and jumped the gun a bit in his celebration of Jackson's return. NFL coaches, after all, probably know as much about the inner workings of the Knicks-Jackson negotiations as the rest of us.
For what it's worth, ESPN's Chris Broussard's sources expect the deal to be done by the end of the week:
Wouldn't it be something if Chris Broussard has just been mining Pete Carroll for NBA information all these years?
