On Thursday night, Charles Barkley was working the Bulls-Knicks game not from TNT studios with the rest of the “Inside the NBA” crew, but court-side in Chicago where he was acting as a color commentator. Knicks president Phil Jackson was also watching the telecast on TNT and eventually threatened to mute Chuck in a tweet because of Barkley’s comments about the much-maligned triple-post offense.
Here’s Phil’s ornery message during the game, including that emoticon of triangle which we love so much:
do I have to mute this game? Chuck just remember your fundamental…key to 🔺
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) December 19, 2014
Earlier in the day, after Shlomo Sprung wrote a piece at SheridanHoops.com criticizing the trade Jackson facilitated sending Tyson Chandler to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert. The NBA’s all-time leader in NBA titles as a coach fired back on Twitter, too:
@sheridanhoops negative, I'm okay with the Dallas deal. Tyson fits there and our 3 players, Jose, Sam, and Shane are on the court.
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) December 18, 2014
@sheridanhoops remember how Pop et al complained about the Pau trade? How does that trade look now? Just relax…and be patient.
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) December 18, 2014
While we applaud Jackson’s patience, and totally agree with him on announcing a trade winner so soon after its completion, it’s not a good look when your president of basketball operations, and a man notoriously even-keeled even in the most pressure-packed situations, becomes some sensitive and angry over a simple blog post.
Later, when ESPN’s Ian Begley informed Barkley about Phil’s tweet, Chuck’s rebuttal was spot-on:
Barkley fires back at Phil Jackson: "I don’t do any social media but he’s too old to be tweeting… Phil's got sensitive in his old age."
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) December 19, 2014
(H/T FTW)
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