New York Knicks: Phil Jackson Steps In To Coach Triangle Offense

New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson returned to his famous role as coach for a day, teaching the triangle offense during practice.

The season is all but considered a failure as the New York Knicks continue to look at 5.5-game deficit in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. In an effort to accelerate the learning curve of the infamous triangle offense, the expert himself, Phil Jackson, returned to the practice floor as a full fledged coach for the day.

Knicks fans have wondered for years after Jackson took the job as team president, whether or not he would abandon his post to eventually coach the team. That was the case during this past Thursday’s practice, as he showed his young core of guards the wise ways of the formation that helped to orchestrate Jackson’s 11 NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.

A member of Jackson’s championship winning Lakers is current Knicks reserve guard Sasha Vujacic, who knows all too well the complexities and effectiveness of the triangle. He spoke with reporters after the session.

"“Honestly, [it was] amazing. It was a really good session. We were told the right things, we were taught the right way and it felt good…We were just being introduced to some stuff that they didn’t know; they did not get introduced to [it] in the beginning of the year. So they just learned about the very basic stuff, how to work together about the spacing and just the very basic things.”“You can take someone trying to teach you something for years, months, whatever, and then you have someone like that that in half an hour explains things that might be a spaceship to other people. So it was amazing,…A lot of guys were confused so far, so hopefully they got a lot of clarity last night and hopefully it will help.”"

The Knicks currently sport a young point guard tandem of Ron Baker and Chasson Randle, who has dazzled when given the opportunity to play under the triangle system.

Randle has run the offense during his time in college at Stanford University and in the Knicks D-League organization, showcasing his knowledge most recently in the Knicks’ comeback victory over the Orlando Magic. Randle’s seven points, five rebounds andfive assists were the catalyst to the team’s win using the triangle offense.

Don’t expect any type of head coach controversy moving forward between Jackson and Jeff Hornacek though, as he told reporters this is an occasional occurrence at practices.

"“Periodically he’s done that before, just come out and shown little different things. He doesn’t do it very often but it seems, once a month maybe, he’ll pop out there and do it. It was [helpful] because we’ve covered a lot of things.“There’s a lot of things you can do in the triangle offense that usually takes a year or two to do. We’re still trying to do some of the basic stuff as well as we can. This is a little more kind of advanced, couple options. Just so they see it and have it in their heads. It’s good to put that out there so when we do get to it at some point, whether it’s this year or next year, they’ll have seen it.”"

Next: 2017 NBA Trade Deadline: Grades For All 30 Teams

As amazing of a sequence it would be to see Jackson behind the bench for a few games, Knicks fans will just have to continue to let that idea live in their dreams.