Everybody's favorite owner, James Dolan of the New York Knicks, told the New York Post's Larry Brooks that recently fired coach Jeff Hornacek struggled to connect with modern players just like former team president Phil Jackson did. In a rare interview, Dolan added that the Knicks' next coach will be a delegator who is skilled at communicating with others in the organization. 

From the Post:

"I think Hornacek had the same kind of issue that Phil did in that he didn't grasp how different the players are now in the way they think and deal with management and the coaches," Dolan said. "I think he was way behind on that.

"But I think Jeff is a good coach and he'll do well when he's hired by another team."

…

"The old-style coaching doesn't work," Dolan said. "A coach who tries to do everything himself isn't going to be successful.

"The coaching search for the Knicks is similar in a lot of ways to the Rangers. I think the teams are in similar spots. We're looking for people to develop players and to create a winning team. We have our lists of candidates, but the lists are still open."

Hornacek supporters might point out that he was not dealt a great hand in New York. In his first season, he was forced to run the triangle offense, regardless of how his players felt about it. (They, by and large, hated it.) As a result, he was behind the eight ball in his second year when it came to earning the players' buy-in, and the entire season was derailed by injuries, most notably franchise player Kristaps Porzingis tearing his ACL in February. In this respect, it is a little odd that Dolan would publicly criticize Hornacek on the way out. 

On the other hand, if this means that the Knicks are actually going to modernize their basketball operations and style of play, fantastic! New York does need exactly what Dolan is describing: A coach who can develop players, build a culture and bring the team into the 21st century. This coaching hire will say a lot about the direction of the franchise.

Dolan's comments about Jackson were also interesting:

"Everybody who wants to talk about the Knicks wants to ask me about Phil Jackson," Dolan said, smiling and shaking his head. "The entire market wanted to me to hire him and when I did, the entire market said it was a great move. The only thing was, everyone said that I shouldn't interfere with him.

"Three years later, everyone wanted to know when I was going to do something about Phil. The same people who told me not to interfere wanted me to interfere. But that's OK. I just think that Phil underestimated the job."

Dolan is not entirely wrong here. The Knicks were indeed largely praised for hiring Jackson, but most of that was precisely because it meant Dolan was going to get out of the way and let Jackson make the important decisions. At the same time, there was some skepticism about whether or not Jackson was the right guy to build a team in this era and whether or not Jackson -- or anyone -- could fix an organization that seemed fundamentally broken. It sure must have felt weird for Dolan when things went sideways and people called on him to fire Jackson, but it now looks like that this partnership was misguided from the start. 

One last thing from the interview: When asked about Porzingis' return from injury, Dolan said, "I've been told everything from December to him being out for the season, so I don't know what to expect on that." If he really could miss the whole season, that would be quite a setback for a team that desperately needs some forward momentum. 

Then again, the longer Porzingis is out, the better New York can expect its 2019 draft pick to be.