It's Official: Phil Jackson Will Try To Save The Knicks

After days of speculation and unconfirmed reports, we finally know for sure that Phil Jackson is being brought in to head up the New York Knicks' front office. Both The New York Times and USA Today are reporting that Jackson's hire as the Knicks' new president will be officially announced on Tuesday.

As for Jackson's chances at turning the Knicks into something other than a giant turd of a basketball team, there are things to be concerned about. Chief among them the fact that Jackson has never held any kind of front-office position and is very unlikely to embrace new, analytically driven methods of building a basketball team. And as long as James Dolan retains final say over everything, Jackson will likely have a hard time wiping away all of the institutional rot that has settled in at MSG.

And the move itself, shelling out a mountain of money to install Phil Jackson as a figure head, doesn't do much to dissuade anyone from the idea that the Knicks are still the stupid Knicks. SB Nation's Seth Rosenthal put it best:

If they hire Phil Jackson, they will not be filling a job opening, they will be creating a job opening with which to subsume Phil Jackson, who does not necessarily fit the job opening created just for him. He is only perceived to fit because he is Phil Jackson. And "because he is Phil Jackson" really seems to be the guiding principle here. It's a "pro" of indeterminate size and shape sitting across from a clear list of cons.

Hopefully we'll at least get a book out of the whole thing.