Phil Jackson had not spoken publicly since his end-of-the-season address in April, aside from a few curious comments via his Twitter account during the NBA playoffs.
But the Knicks’ president acknowledged in an interview published on Friday that the fall from the top two — and projected lottery prizes Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor — to the No. 4 spot in next Thursday’s draft has altered the team’s approach to its first-round pick and the free-agency period that opens on July 1.
“Whereas before I was like, ‘OK, we’re going to draft a big,' now we have to be open to what’s there for us that makes our team different,” Jackson told the New York Times.