Mark Jackson Banned From Knicks Plane, Loses TV Broadcast Gig
Mark Jackson was prepared to make his return to broadcasting this season, but the New York Knicks quickly changed those plans Wednesday.
The retired NBA guard and former ESPN broadcaster was hired as a color commentator at MSG Network, which planned for him to fill in for Clyde Frazier. However, Knicks management led by team president Leon Rose ended the arrangement due to a past “quarrel” between Jackson and assistant coach Darren Erman, according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.
Erman was an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics from 2007-10 before he joined Jackson’s staff on the Golden State Warriors. The former head coach fired Erman for taping conversations before he himself was fired, according to ESPN in 2014. Erman returned to the Celtics from 2014-15 and was head coach of the team’s G League affiliate the Maine Red Claws from 2019-20.
Jackson threw a shot at Erman in 2016 on an ESPN broadcast, and it appears the two haven’t found common ground, which cost Jackson a broadcasting gig following his layoff from ESPN last summer.
The MSG Network gig would have reunited Jackson with Mike Breen, but “Rose was the final decision maker behind not allowing Jackson on the team plane, hotel, or team bus,” sources told Marchand.
TV broadcasters are permitted to travel and room with the team, but there is generally little interaction beyond that. Jackson wasn’t going to make extra money from his new gig because he’s still owed money by ESPN, which had to approve of the deal.
MSG Network planned to reunite Jackson, Breen and Jeff Van Gundy before the latter became a senior consultant for the Celtics, per Marchand.