Phil Jackson Reportedly 'Saddened' by How His LeBron James 'Posse' Remark Was Received

Phil Jackson reportedly regrets his verbiage choice in referring to LeBron James' business team as his "posse."

Brad Penner
USA Today Sports

Image via USA Today Sports

Brad Penner

NBA fans are likely more than exhausted with the term “posse” at this point. After Knicks President Phil Jackson used that descriptor to represent LeBron James’ business team in November, it drove the national sports conversation for weeks—and yes, we’re still counting, because the conversation is still going.

Jackson has heard and (sort of) addressed the criticism he’s received so far.

"That's a topic I'm not going to discuss because, one, we're not supposed to discuss other teams' players in this position that I have here," Jackson said. "So I violated one of the tenets of our thing. And the obvious thing is, the word itself carries connotation. And I just don't understand that part of it, the word. So I guess word choice could be something I could regret. But yeah, talking about other teams' players, that's out of the box."

Though he’s come under fire, that doesn’t necessarily mean Jackson regrets his comments, though he does seem to regret his verbiage choice and (almost definitely) wishes he had not said “posse.”

According to a Bleacher Report article, Jackson was “saddened” by how his comments were received. Kevin Ding reports Jackson feels misunderstood and was in no way trying to offend LeBron or his business team (namely Maverick Carter).

Jackson is reportedly especially upset about the racial interpretations of him saying “posse.” Many believed Jackson’s comments were racially charged and had profiling written all over them. Jackson, though clearly somewhat remorseful, reportedly does not feel his comments warranted such criticism.

We probably won’t know how Jackson really feels about this situation for a long time, but we do know how LeBron feels about it, and he has no intention to work it out with Jackson.

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