New York Knicks president Phil Jackson had a bad habit of publicly airing private conversations, and J.R. Smith is none too happy with the Zen Master’s big mouth.
This past summer, Jackson blabbed to a reporter about a series of one-on-one chats he had with Smith prior to trading him to the Cleveland Cavaliers last season.
Smith says what Jackson did is “crazy”—the Cavs pay the Knicks a visit at MSG tonight.
Per ESPN:
“It was crazy to me because I try to leave my personal life on the side and when somebody sits there, sits behind a desk and tells you to open up on what’s going on with you, you’re thinking that’s going to be between the two of y’all,” Smith said. “So, for me, it tells me something I already knew. But to come from someone like Phil, it’s just, it’s crazy. It makes you not want to tell anybody anything [that has] anything to do with your business. It was tough, but that’s how he handles stuff, that’s how he does it.”
Jackson dealt Smith and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland last January in a three-team trade that essentially pulled the plug on the 2014-15 season for the Knicks. New York finished with a franchise-low 17 wins last season.
Smith was asked on Friday if he thought Jackson’s disclosure of a private conversation would be questioned by others in the NBA. […] “I’ve talked to a few people and they don’t understand why he did it, but I definitely won’t have that conversation with anybody else after that. So it just stuck with me. It’s all right,” Smith said.
