Phil Jackson can be as blunt as he wants to, especially when it comes to players under his circle. He is never shy to reveal the positives and negatives of any player, whether he is a star or not.
Jackson praises star player Carmelo Anthony, calling him fit and an all-in-one player suited for his patented triangle offense. But going down the line, he singles out the players who do not exactly meet his standards.
There are two actually, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Andre Bargnani. Both are no longer with the Knicks. Hardaway is now with the Atlanta Hawks while Bargnani was shipped to the Brooklyn Nets.
Charley Rosen, a former Jackson assistant put up a pretty interesting post over at ESPN titled The Phil Files: Final Evaluations. In the article, Rosen details the assessment of Jackson on the Knick players, including Hardaway and Bargnani.
Jackson criticizes Hardaway as someone who plays ugly defense, someone who rarely beats his man to screens. Jackson says that Hardaway needs to grow emotionally to become an NBA player.
He didn't held back on Bargnani either. In all, he seemed to indicate that Bargnani was lost when it came to getting on the same page with the Knicks plays.
"AB was and still is a big tease. When he was injured he refused to do simple non-contact activities like dummy our offense in practice. He seemed to be a malingerer and this had a bad effect on the team, and also on the way the Knicks fans reacted to him..." says Jackson in that said interview found at ESPN.
Hardaway and Bargnani may have read those lines though both have not yet reacted. Then again they don't really have to.
To prove that Jackson was wrong in his evaluation, the two may do well to prove that with their respective teams. It should be extra motivation for them to show Jackson up and with the proper breaks from their respective teams, both can hopefully prove the Zen Master wrong.
