Phil Jackson: ‘I Was Really Surprised That I Didn’t Get the Executive of the Year Award’

New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson endured plenty of losses this season—the most in franchise history, in fact—but that hasn’t sapped his famously dry sense of humor.

The Zen Master joked about not being in the running for NBA Executive of the Year, and is now focused on rebuilding this once-proud organization.

Jackson will have big decisions to make this summer, but wants to manage the fanbase’s expectations.

Per the NY Times:

Self-deprecation was apparently one of the rare things that did not fail him across a 17-65 season, the worst record in Knicks history. […] “I was really surprised that I didn’t get the Executive of the Year Award,” he said on Tuesday when asked to assess his first full go-round as Knicks president.

 

Most significant for long-suffering Knicks fans was that Jackson promised not to nap from late June through the end of July, when the N.B.A. draft and free-agent season take place. […] “Real issues are coming up,” he said, before adding, “in moving the team forward in quick order.”

 

Forward should not be taken to mean a storybook march from nearly worst to first. Jackson said the Knicks’ championship parade, on hiatus since he participated as a player in the last one in 1973, would not happen in 2016. […] “That would be like talking crazy,” he said. “But we really do think progressively we’re going to get better. I think teams have to take substantial steps, and that’s what we want to do.”