Former New York Knicks president Phil Jackson has been public enemy No. 1 of late, but at least one former player is grateful to the Zen Master.
TMZ Sports caught up to Tyson Chandler, who said Jackson did him a huge favor by trading him out of New York in June of 2014.
In one of his first big moves as president, Jackson traded Chandler and point guard Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for guards Jose Calderon, Shane Larkin and Wayne Ellington and center Samuel Dalembert, along with a couple of second-round draft picks that year.
For Chandler, Jackson’s decision was nothing if not a huge gift.
“He got me in a good situation!” Chandler said.
The big trade, which was highly criticized by the New York media and national media alike, reunited Chandler with Dirk Nowitzky and Co., the team he won a title with in 2011.
We all know what happened to the Knicks. They crumbled big time under the poor leadership of Jackson, who quite obviously was a better coach than he was a front office man.
Though, you probably won’t hear him complaining about being ousted. He’s laughing all the way to the bank.