Phil can't mail Knicks job in from afar

— -- Phil Jackson thinks he is smarter than everyone else, and he has a trophy case the size of a three-car garage to back him up. In fact, Jackson is so smart, and so sure of himself, he probably thinks he can successfully run the New York Knicks from a space station in orbit.

Technology has made the world smaller than a basketball, right? So what's the problem? Why can't Jackson use email, Skype and the good ol' cell to communicate the principles of the triangle to the less enlightened and to explain why Zen philosophy reserves no sanctuary for the me-centric likes of J.R. Smith?

Because he has no idea how badly the Knicks are screwed up, that's why. Jackson might think he knows from watching games, from talking to confidants around the league, and from reading news accounts of the bizarro world of Jim Dolan, but he doesn't have a clue. And he wouldn't have a clue until he got up close and personal with a Madison Square Garden regime obsessed with defeating an opponent, the news media, that you won't find anywhere in your Eastern Conference standings.

Jackson has to know that he can't have it both ways here, that he can't take the power and the cash and not the never-ending obligations that come with it. The lord of the rings can't lord over the Knicks from a faraway beach or ranch, doing whatever it is that Zen Masters do.

Jackson has to move to New York, and start grinding 24/7, for the Knicks to have any shot of emerging as a legitimate contender in two or three years. And really, if he has no intention of doing that, he should let the Knicks go scramble for another savior they can prop up for the fans who are mobilizing against them.

Yes, Jackson is known for doing what Jackson wants to do. When Garden and Knicks executive Dave Checketts secretly courted him in 1999, Jackson was told to show up alone to a meeting at Checketts' Connecticut home. The blue-chip recruit showed up with his agent, Todd Musburger, instead.

Jackson didn't take any Knicks job then, but sure seems a lot more likely to take one now. As long as he understands the terms of engagement, no problem. Phil Jackson, rookie executive, is a gamble worth taking in New York.

As long as he decides to live and work in, you know, New York.