Charley Rosen, Jeanie Buss talk Phil Jackson; Phil talks coyotes

Hey, remember Charley Rosen? The big butts guy? He's back, and he has written a massive serialized piece about the Knicks' 2014-15 season. I don't know about y'all but I would rather go back and read every single AOL Instant Message I sent to girls I liked in high school than Charley Freakin' Rosen's tome about the worst club in Knicks history.

Anyway, the first part was released on ESPN's website this afternoon. Having read it, I can tell you the one and only highlight is Phil talking with Willis Reed about coyotes:

But first, the tipoff topic of discussion is the distressing news that a black bear attacked and killed a young man in a nearby community. Since Jackson (Deer Lodge, Montana) and Reed (Hico, Louisiana) both hail from decidedly rural geographies, the conversation soon turns to other species of native wildlife. They tell tales of wolves, bobcats and mountain lions, but they agree that coyotes are the cleverest of these.

"When I'm out for a walk," Reed says, "or driving down a country lane, I'm likely to see plenty of them running around, ignoring me. But when I have a gun with me, I never see one. Coyotes, at least the ones near me, seem to know that I'm armed and dangerous."

"Coyotes love to eat cats and dogs," Jackson says. "They'll send a female in heat to lure a male dog to his death."

Word to the wise, Mr. Rosen: if you want to entice readers to keep on perusing your serial piece, you better cut out all the stuff about basketball. You don't seem to know much about basketball:

Just in case you forgot who Charley Rosen is: http://t.co/HuBveshLkW pic.twitter.com/HHwSajWOFZ

— RUSS BENGT$ON (@russbengtson) June 29, 2015

Instead, why not just focus on Phil and Willis talking about nature? I'd read the shit out of that book.

One person who probably knows Phil a bit better than Rosen is his longtime partner, Los Angeles Lakers president Jeanie Buss. She was asked by USA Today's Sam Amick to describe the draft-night dynamic between herself and Jackson, when L.A. stunned the basketball world by picking D'Angelo Russell and New York stunned the basketball world even harder by picking Kristaps Porzingis. She paints a portrait of a man excited with the process of a long-term rebuild:

But on a personal level, I want to see him happy in his job, and he was happy that day. What I think is great is that because he's a young player – Porzingis – it means that Phil is committed to being in New York in the long term and, you know, I enjoy watching him being challenged and working hard. He has found fulfillment. I miss him, but this is something he wanted to do and I wish him the best."

She also tried her best to brush aside any notion that Jackson plans to retire before his contract is up in 2019:

"That's not (pauses). He bought a place in the city. He's thinking about getting a place closer to the practice facility too. He's all in (laughs). I mean certainly he serves at the behest of the owner, as everybody in this business, and so it's really for the owner to decide. But he signed a five-year commitment."

Clearly Phil wants to be the one to hand Porzingis the MVP trophy at the end of the 2018-19 season.