Jeff Hornacek was hired as the head coach of the New York Knicks to start the 2016-17 season following the Knicks run with Kurt Rambis as the interim head coach to end the 2015-16 season. Rambis moved into the interim head coach role due in part to Phil Jackson’s appointment of him to Derek Fisher’s coaching staff. As Hornacek went into his first season with the Knicks, he essentially didn’t have a choice but to keep Rambis on the team and many thought Rambis was the ‘triangle whisperer’ for the Knicks coaches.
As the season was getting close to completion, the problems with the Knicks came to a boiling point and some wanted the Knicks to move on from Hornacek as a coach less than one season into his deal. Essentially, that would mean Rambis could end the season as the interim head coach once again. Carmelo Anthony and Hornacek reportedly bumped heads but the Knicks star didn’t want Hornacek to give in to the triangle offense. It was one of the many points of contention all season long coupled with Knicks players reportedly not being too fond of Rambis, the newly appointed ‘defensive coordinator’.
Rambis looked to be the next man to step in but it appears that he wasn’t ready for that and didn’t want to run the triangle once again. The Knicks assistant apparently wasn’t a huge fan of the triangle offense, the same scheme that Jackson is known for and Rambis learned during his time as a Phil Jackson disciple. Rambis simply did not want to take over and run the offense, he was comfortable in his role as an assistant.
ESPN’s TBA (The Basketball Analogy) podcast had a super-show today to talk about the Knicks front office moves and the Chris Paul trade to the Houston Rockets. Super producer Jade Hoye had a litany of guests on including ESPN’s Amin Elhassan, Tom Haberstroh, Pablo Torre and Mike Ryan, Zach Harper of Fan Rag Sports, actor Jerry Ferrara and podcast regular Black Tray.
You have seen Tray on your Twitter timeline before but he is a longtime friend of former New York Knicks point guard Brandon Jennings. Outside of that, he’s pretty connected with some NBA players and people working with these guys.
Tray talked with the group about Phil Jackson’s downfall with the Knicks and the moves he made. They discussed the next Knicks general manager potentially getting rid of Jeff Hornacek and picking the next coaching staff came up. Tray stepped in and talked about former Knicks interim head coach and current assistant. He divulged that Kurt Rambis might not have been too sold on the triangle and he was content with playing his part on the staff.
(Tray’s quote begins at approximately the 24 minute mark of the pod)
Black Tray – So, you know I was around a lot. At the time everybody was always talking about Jeff (Hornacek) and saying how bad he was doing but it was like ‘Yo, if you fire Jeff…’ Kurt really did not want to be the coach. He was actually content with being an assistant guy, even though guys liked him. He just was not fond of the idea of having to run the Triangle again.
Amin Elhassan – Kurt Rambis?
Black Tray – Yea
Jerry Ferrara – Kurt wasn’t?…All the talk was always…Kurt was gonna be the guy to help instill the defensive triangle principles.
Black Tray – Nah… At the time he was just moreso just happy being out of like the front man.
(Some jokes between other guests….)
Black Tray – At the end of the day, you know, it’s all about the players buying in and the players kinda just turned heel after a while. That locker room was just so…bad. It was kinda like, I mean the guys didn’t hate each other, they dealt with each other but at the end of the day… It was just some stuff that didn’t really, I suppose, happened especially with the whole media riff raff between Phil and Carmelo. They had like a players-only meeting during that time and some things were uhhh, some things happened and that’s where the turn happened.
A few minutes later, Black Tray put the bow on the Knicks issues with the Triangle.
Black Tray – “It was literally like a ‘my way or the highway’ type thing know what I mean? They could win and he (was) still bearing down on Jeff…Like ‘we’re running the triangle, and I’m not happy.’
(You’re aggregation wishes have been met Amin, Tom and Jerry.)
