Today at the Knicks’ pre-training camp press conference, New York Knicks president Phil Jackson sounded off on Derrick Rose’s sexual assault case. From Marc Berman of the New York Post:
Knicks president Phil Jackson mentioned Derrick Rose’s upcoming rape trial in the opening remarks of a pre-training camp press conference on Friday, referring to it as “a serious subject,” then — in a bizarre attempt at reassurance — saying his new star point guard would not lose sleep over the case.
…
We’re going to let the process work itself out,” Jackson said during his press conference at the Knicks’ Tarrytown headquarters. “We’re not concerned. We understand it’s a serious subject we’re talking about. This has to be done outside our control. It’s something we can’t control. Derrick has expressed he’s not concerned about it. He’s aware of it but it’s not keeping him up at night.”
That is a very strange approach to the subject; this is something that Rose should be losing sleep over — it’s a big deal.
Jackson also added that he does not believe that the case will affect Rose’s first season in New York:
“There’s a lot of stuff in our newspapers that [raises] concerns about a variety of things,” Jackson said. “One thing I’d like to address about Derrick Rose and the process he’s going through. We anticipate it will not affect his season, hopefully, training camp or games. We’re going to let the due process of the justice system work its way through the next week and a half. We want to put this to rest. There doesn’t need to be a lot of talk about this.”
