Knicks' Arron Afflalo denies Kurt Rambis' claim of demotion discussion

Arron Afflalo doesn't believe Kurt Rambis discussed his demotion.

By Zach Harper

Mar 30, 2016 at 3:36 pm ET • 1 min read

Recently, New York Knicks coach Kurt Rambis had essentially demoted Arron Afflalo in favor of Sasha Vujacic. That's a crushing blow to anybody's NBA career, considering Vujacic isn't any good and Afflalo was one of the more important free agent acquisitions for Phil Jackson this past summer. Rambis has cited Vujacic's energy as a reason for the move, but really you could just give Afflalo a Red Bull before the game and solve that equation pretty quickly.

Rambis also claims to have had a conversation with Afflalo about said demotion and there was a miscommunication, but here's the twist in that aspect of the story. Afflalo claims there wasn't a breakdown in communication because the conversation Rambis claims to have had with Afflalo never actually happened. From Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:

Arron Afflalo is confused why Kurt Rambis claims there was a conversation about his demotion to the bench, slamming the idea that there was a miscommunication.

Either way, it’s clear there is a standoff between a coach who wants a veteran to embrace a new role, and a player who doesn’t think it’s deserved.

“There’s no breakdown in communication,” Afflalo said Wednesday. “We never had the communication. …I don’t know why he would say there was a conversation.”

So you have the coach claiming the demotion was discussed between him and the player, and you have the player claiming that discussion never actually happened. I'm not sure who to believe on this. Is it possible Rambis was talking to Afflalo about this and once Arron heard the words, "I'm going to start Sasha over you," he blacked out and lost complete memory of everything that had just been discussed?

Is it possible Rambis really believes he was talking to Afflalo about this demotion but he was really not paying attention to who he was discussing this with and it was really just a fedora on top of a coatrack in his office? Either way, it's not unlike Rambis to make confusing rotation and starting lineup decisions. When he coached the Minnesota Timberwolves, there were large stretches in which he favored Ryan Hollins over a young Kevin Love.