The New York Knicks made a decision to fire Derek Fisher last year after just over one season of working as the head coach. Fisher’s firing has not exactly changed the direction of the team. Under Jeff Hornacek, hired this summer, the Knicks sit at only 21-28 with a tough road if they wish to reach the playoffs.
Fisher recently spoke to Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report about a variety of topics. Most notable, he spoke about his tenure in New York, what went wrong, and the state of the team without him.
Some excerpts:
“We both [Fisher and Knicks team president Phil Jackson] didn’t know exactly what we were doing,” Fisher said. “Being the head coach is not like playing. Being president is not like being the head coach. That’s one of the reasons why we didn’t quite complete our meshing and blending of talents and thoughts, because those two positions are not always aligned.”
“One of the challenges for all of us was we were in the basketball department under the umbrella of Phil Jackson and who he was and who he is and what he was able to do as coach and leader,” Fisher said. “Then [when you’re] asking me as a head coach in a sense not to create the same results, but take the same system or way of playing and try and teach these guys how to play it—and utilize it in similar ways as when he taught it—I think at times it was more challenging for our players to really understand, ‘Who am I committing myself to? Who am I selling myself to? Who am I running through the brick wall for?'”
“I know what was going on,” Fisher said. “I know day to day the work that was being done. I know what we deposited into Kristaps Porzingis that is coming out this year. He isn’t where he is now by himself. He deserves all the credit, but what we were helping him do for himself—that matters.”
“We were able to take a team that wasn’t as talented as the team they have now, and we were much better and much further along than this group is that they have now,” Fisher said. “Because the foundation was being laid.
“That’s different than just trying to coach basketball—and it takes longer. That’s the part that you can’t measure in wins and losses either. That’s what we were doing the best at.”
Fisher does have a point here. His team was not as good as this Knicks one in terms of pure talent. It is, however, important to note that Hornacek’s talent is old and doesn’t mesh well.
But Derek Fisher’s comments about Phil Jackson are especially telling. It’s previously been rumored that Jackson believed he gave Fisher too much freedom in how he coached the team. But Fisher seems to point to the opposite, even while acknowledging Jackson’s greatness as a former coach.
It’s not easy for someone to go into a situation where a supervisor wants to meddle in every decision. Everything we’ve heard about Jackson’s tenure in New York points to that being the reality. Fisher is not without blame, but he was also placed in a position where success was incredibly difficult to come by.
Ding’s article also prominently features Fisher’s thoughts about a controversial relationship with Matt Barnes’ ex-wife, something he has previously written about. And Barnes’ reaction:
The gift that keeps on giving.
