Three years after Donnie Walsh decided to bypass Mark Jackson and hire Mike D’Antoni as Knicks’ head coach, some fans and media still pine for Jackson and think about what might have been.
But how can anyone be certain that Jackson would have been successful based on any of these assertions? Three years ago, there was no body of work on which to evaluate Jackson’s coaching acumen. Three years later, there still isn’t. Almost any coach you can think of puts in work before ascending to a position of prominence (or per Guru, “I put in work, and watch my status escalate.”) And no, that doesn’t mean watching basketball games with Jeff Van Gundy.
But let’s explore a likely potential outcome if the Knicks decided to hire Jackson: