Knicks beat Hawks after players have a 'long conversation' with Phil Jackson
The Knicks trailed by 27 points in the third quarter of Thursday's loss to the Wizards, before putting together a 47-point fourth quarter to make things competitive down the stretch.
But a loss is a loss, and with so many things swirling around the team -- from Phil Jackson randomly speaking about LeBron James and his "posse" to his continued insistence on using the triangle offense -- it was time for the players to meet with the team's president in order to clear the air.
That's exactly what happened on Saturday, as Carmelo Anthony explained following New York's Sunday afternoon win over the Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
“I thought the players did a great job of just kind of voicing their opinion on kind of where we want to be, what type of team we want to be, where we want to go and things that we want to see change,” Anthony said, via Newsday.
“The conversation was a long conversation. I don’t want to go into details about what we spoke about, but my guys responded very well to what was said in that meeting. As you can see, it was a different focus, it was a different mindset, it was a different energy that we approached the game with.”
Best of all (at least from the players' perspective), Jackson was simply there to listen.
“Nah, he actually just listened this time,” Anthony said, “which is good.”
The topics discussed will remain private for now, but there's no denying the results. The Knicks beat a very solid Hawks team by a final of 104-94 to improve to 6-7 on the young season.
