Phil Jackson, the new GM of the New York Knicks, is famous for using psychology and motivation to bend unruly, undisciplined and unfocused basketball teams into history-making, championship-winning organizations. Any who doubted he could wield such influence as effectively from the front office as well as he did from the sidelines is a dang fool. The Zen Master has become one with the Force in his new capacity as the Knicks' guru, playing mind games with Carmelo Anthony in the press. Jackson is used to molding difficult superstars like Shaq and Kobe, to whom he reportedly gave frequent reading assignments during the Lakers' championship run under Jackson's reign as coach. When you have the biggest stars in the NBA reading Nietzsche and Sun Tzu, you can probably accomplish anything.
One of Jackson's main objectives with the Knicks right now is securing Carmelo Anthony, who is now a free agent, for a price that will allow Jackson to build a championship contender around Anthony. And as we have seen in the past, Jackson will go to any lengths to achieve his objective (via Huffington Post):
"More than simply being a great coach, Phil Jackson is the consummate manager of people, delegating responsibilities to coaches while the managing egos and personalities of narcissistic NBA players. Tex Winter installed the triangle offense in Chicago, but Jackson was responsible for Michael Jordan accepting the system as well as his teammates."
In fact, if there were a PhD for controlling the egos of temperamental superstars, Phil Jackson would have one (via CBS Sports):
"Way back when Jackson had an alpha male situation on his hands with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, the Zen Master introduced Shaq to the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, the great existential philosopher... The 13-time NBA champion gave Bryant a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, to teach him that 'leaders cannot enjoy special treatment or amenity if they are to command the respect of the rank and file.'"
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