Mystery solved: Phil Jackson is road tripping to his Montana home, collecting his thoughts

We've had a lot of fun around here guessing as to why Phil Jackson has been repeatedly seen traversing the Plains states of Iowa and Nebraska, and now we finally have an answer. Intrepid Sioux City journalist Chris Neyerhouse tracked down the Zen Master's brother, Chuck, who told him that Phil will be dropping him off in Idaho. From there, Phil will head to his ranch in Montana.

"Curly"moment. pic.twitter.com/xKgKl5SYt4

— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) May 5, 2016

Why is the Knicks team president retreating to Big Sky country? According to Marc Berman, he is deep in deliberation over whom he sure hire to be the next head coach:

"Still thinking it through," one Jackson associate told The Post. "He's always been such a quick thinker -- always three, four steps ahead of everybody else. But that's as coach. Being the executive is really different for him."

Indeed it is different! To the best of our knowledge, only two candidates have been considered up to this point: David Blatt and Kurt Rambis. Blatt is also in the running for other jobs; meanwhile, that same Phil confidant hopes that any move to promote Rambis to the full-time gig be done with haste.

"If you're heading into free agency with Rambis on July 1, I want to get him named and let all the noise settle down before the selling begins."

Let all the noise settle down. They might as well take that time to invent a Men In Black-style neuralizer to erase all memory of Rambis's coaching career. His 65-164 lifetime record (9-19 last season) isn't going to settle down because it isn't noise ... it's a cold, hard, irrefutable fact.

Ah, whatever. Take a long weekend, Phil. Get your head straight. But if Frank Vogel becomes available, please get in touch with him A.S.A.P.