NBA

Phil Jackson: No one got my ‘woke’ NBA joke

Former Knicks player and executive Phil Jackson has now tried to clarify his comments about the NBA becoming too “political,” claiming that they were a joke.

During an appearance on the “Stacey King’s Gimme the Hot Sauce” podcast, Jackson was asked if he wanted to address the controversial comments, and he chuckled before answering.

“I don’t think people got the humor of the names are on the back of the players that were in the bubble, because if you apply them to defending and challenging and going to the hoop, and you use those monikers that were on the names, it had a funny aspect to it,” Jackson said.

“That’s just what I was bringing up to the kids. Visually, this is kind of humorous. I had nothing against BLM or the cause that was behind it. The humorous nature of going completely woke by the NBA really was like, it’s pretty hard to watch.”

Phil Jackson, pictured while with the Knicks, tried to clarify his comments about the NBA being too political.
Phil Jackson, pictured while with the Knicks, tried to clarify his comments about the NBA being too political. Getty Images

Jackson made his initial comments during an April 5 episode of “Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin,” and he said that he hasn’t followed the NBA — or watched games — since 2020, when the league played in its COVID-19 bubble in Orlando and allowed athletes to replace their jersey names with social justice messages.

“They went into the lockout year and they did something that was kind of wanky, they did a bubble down in Orlando, and all the teams that could qualify went down there and stayed down there,” Jackson said on the Rubin podcast. “And they had things on their back like, ‘Justice.’ They made a funny thing like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.’ … My grandkids thought that was pretty funny to play up those names. I couldn’t watch that.”

Jackson was then asked a follow-up question about what he didn’t like about that, and he said that the league was “trying to cater to an audience or trying to bring a certain audience into play, and they didn’t know that it was turning other people off.”

“People wanted to see sports as non-political.”

One of the Los Angeles Lakers jerseys in 2020 includes a social justice message ahead of their game against the Trail Blazers.
One of the Los Angeles Lakers jerseys in 2020 includes a social justice message ahead of their game against the Trail Blazers. Getty Images

That immediately prompted a wave of backlash toward Jackson, including from Jalen Rose — a Post columnist, host of the “Renaissance Man” podcast and an NBA analyst for ESPN — who blasted Jackson in a Twitter video and said that “you can’t make this up.”

“The same Phil Jackson that won championships with some of the greatest black athletes in the history of the game — Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant. Made millions on their backs and off their sweat equity.

“You’re sitting there watching games with your grandkids and y’all think it’s funny when justice passes the ball to equal opportunity?” Rose continued. “When somebody shows you who you are, believe them, so stop watching — forever.”

Jackson won 11 NBA championships as a head coach and later served as the Knicks’ president before the team fired him in 2017.