Phil Jackson isn’t a fan of the current style of play in basketball.
Jackson, according to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, has a problem with the game becoming more individualized. While explaining his point, he brought up the issue of LeBron James getting away with traveling on a regular basis.
“I watch LeBron James, for example,” Jackson said. “He might [travel] every other time he catches the basketball if he’s off the ball. He catches the ball, moves both his feet. You see it happen all the time. There’s no structure, there’s no discipline, there’s no ‘How do we play this game’ type of attitude. And it goes all the way through the game. To the point where now guys don’t screen—they push guys off with their hands.”
“The game actually has some beauty to it, and we’ve kind of taken some of that out of it to make it individualized,” Jackson said. “It’s a lot of who we are as a country, individualized stuff.”
Obviously, the New York Knicks president has a point as there have been plenty of instances in which James has been guilty of traveling. As for his issue with the game becoming more individualized, the Cleveland Cavaliers are the perfect team to use as an example considering their strategy is largely based off of giving LeBron the basketball.
Jackson’s statement should be expected from the president of a team that went 17-65 during the regular season. It seems he’s stuck in “the old days” and possibly a bit unhappy with his team’s inability to make individualization work with Carmelo Anthony taking 20 shots per game.
[h/t Pro Basketball Talk]
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