Mark Jackson says he has “no ill feeling” toward the Knicks. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t badly hurt when Knick management failed to call him on draft night to inform him of his trade to the Nuggets.
Jackson, while vacationing in the Bahamas, learned of the Antonio McDyess blockbuster by watching the draft on his hotel television with his family at the Atlantis in Paradise Island.
“I wish I would’ve found out prior to [Denver GM] Kiki Vandeweghe telling the fans at the draft party on TNT,” said Jackson, who returned from the Bahamas yesterday. “That’s my only problem. I deserved a little better than that. I would’ve preferred to learn of the trade via phone call from the Knicks instead of the same way the rest of the country learned of it as it played out on TV. When I run my own show one day, I would hope to do it a little better than that.”
Jackson, 37, almost surely will coach an NBA team one day. What’s uncertain is what team he’ll play for next season. What better way for Jackson to get back at the Knicks than to end his distinguished career as Jason Kidd’s backup on the Eastern Conference champion Nets.
If Jackson prefers, the rebuilding Nuggets would buy out the final two years of his contract and allow him to become a free agent. Only $6 million of the $8M left on his pact is guaranteed, as Jackson’s deal has a buyout clause the final year. The Nuggets also could trade him, and a league source said Denver has already gotten two inquiries.
The Nets won’t trade for Jackson, but undoubtedly would have interest in him for the $1.4 million cap exception. They are in the market for a backup to Kidd, who lives on the same block as Jackson in Saddle River. “Great guy, quality person,” Jackson said of Kidd.
“Kiki and I go back a long way,” said Jackson, Vandeweghe’s teammate with the Knicks and Denver. “We’re friends. If that’s where I wind up, I’ll be excited about it. We’ve discussed a lot of possibilities and [a buyout] is certainly one of them.”
Jackson said the Nets would be high on his list, but said there are other teams he’d feel “comfortable” playing for, presumably the Lakers, who need a backup PG after trading Lindsay Hunter, and his old Pacers.
The Nuggets are favorites to win the lottery and don’t want Jackson in a situation he doesn’t want to be in. They even waived his physical, letting the deal go through anyway. “Our plan is whatever Mark wants to do,” Nugget assistant GM David Fredman said.
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Knicks’ summer league team continues to look like a reunion of former draft picks. Besides second-rounders Eric Chenowith and Pete Mickeal returning, the Knicks have brought aboard their 1997 first-round pick John Thomas, out of basketball three years.
