2016 NBA GO: On Phil Jackson's Regrets

A couple of days ago, the basketball headlines were sprayed with legendary 'coach' Phil Jackson's thoughts on his biggest mistake -- well, according to him. And as you now know, t'was his missing to snag Jae Crowder in that Knicks-Mavericks trade that brought back Tyson Chandler to Dallas and, several Mavs' players to NYC.

Seriously. Was it Phil's biggest mistake?

He says while he liked Crowder, he didn't take that chance of getting him 'cause he thought Crowder might not have much of a chance to play behind Carmelo Anthony. If that was the case, then New York's biggest mistake was signing up Melo. After all, Melo hasn't really done much to make the Knicks competitive -- but only the arrival of Kristaps Porzingis did show some promise!

Yeah, failing to include Jae Crowder in the trade was an error. But just one of 'em. While Crowder brings that 'toughness' to a team -- something that contenders really need to go deep into the PlayOffs -- know what Phil Jackson's biggest mistake really was?

Forcing the 'triangle' on the Knicks.

This was compounded with the hiring of a 'troubled' Derek Fisher to coach 'em. New York just didn't have the players to play the 'triangle' -- and forcing that system only brought the team to oblivion. Phil was kinda wrong in believing that Fisher really 'got the players to stay as positive as possible while the losses piled up'. Hey, in this case, the bottom line speaks for itself! Too many losses just can't be a sign that those in the team are indeed 'positive'??

Notice those that got jettisoned from the Knicks? Deep inside, they were grumbling all along!

For one, the 'triangle' is about having a 'team-first' mentality. And with players like Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith on board -- it's 'me-first' that comes to play! This was also the underlying reason why the Lakers' Kobe and Shaq didn't last long together.

Foreign players with the Knicks at that time like Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon would have been ideal for the 'triangle' as they understand the value of ball movement; however, they just had to deal with injuries as well as Melo's 'me-first' attitude, so..

Then again, what happened to a 'losing' Golden State in the recent NBA Finals is a different story. It's not about 'ball movement', they got it -- it's about 'not choking' when it counts most. Something that Melo, or even Porzingis may possess to New York's favor.