INDIANAPOLIS – Mark Jackson may prove to be the biggest headache for the Knicks in their Eastern Conference finals against the Pacers. Jackson, of course, was once a major piece of the Knick fabric, experiencing all the highs and suffering all the lows. Ask him for the low point and he answers without hesitation: his fine and suspension by then-GM Al Bianchi and then-coach John MacLeod.
”The low point was in practice where the general manager and the head coach call me over in practice, while we’re stretching and basically curse me out and tried to bait me into fighting them,” Jackson recalled of the 1991 incident. ”And then the next day reading that I cursed them out and challenged them to a fight when at that time, I was already a Christian and didn’t curse and wouldn’t do that. That was the low point – being suspended and fined. That was total disrespect.”
The incident occured after Jackson made comments on a national TV broadcast and, bascially, was ordered to shut up by Bianchi and MacLeod. Another broadcast, more comments and more comments appeared in the local newspapers. Next came the incident at Purchase. But there was a happy ending.
”The good thing was when Dave Checketts took over,” Jackson recalled. ”He investigated the whole thing and talked to people and determined what was said happened didn’t happen and he gave me my money back. It was all John MacLeod and Al Bianchi. Good plan. If I was a hothead, it would have worked.”