At least until spending a couple of hours with Phil Jackson— the new Knicks president.
The Knicks owner confessed in a pair of candid live television interviews during the second quarter of Wednesday night's Pacers-Knicks game that Jackson initially won him over during an impromptu basketball lesson at a mutual friend's house in December.
"He taught me basketball in two hours," Dolan told MSG's Al Trautwig.
When asked what he learned during that time with the zen master, Dolan added, "That I don't know basketball."
The normally camera-shy Dolan later spoke to ESPN's Lisa Salters from his seat and also recalled that initial meeting.
"The way he explained the game to me, I'd never actually had anybody teach me it that way," he said. "He clearly has a level of intelligence and skill in the game that I hadn't seen before, and obviously his reputation preceded him."
Dolan also told Salters the season has been "a huge surprise, a disappointment for everybody," but added of a possible playoff berth, "We're certainly playing well enough to do so, but we've got to get some breaks along the way."
Asked about Carmelo Anthony, Dolan said, "The most important thing to him is to win a championship, so our job with him to convince him to stay is to convince him that he has a great shot of doing that. Bringing on Phil certainly helps."
Here's the ESPN interview:
Asked about Carmelo Anthony, Dolan said, "The most important thing to him is to win a championship, so our job with him to convince him to stay is to convince him that he has a great shot of doing that. Bringing on Phil certainly helps."
Here's the ESPN interview:
