After being laid off by ESPN earlier this year, it appeared that Mark Jackson found a new broadcasting home as a fill-in commentator for MSG Network on New York Knicks games this season.
Mike Breen and Walt “Clyde” Frazier even prematurely announced the news during an Oct. 27 broadcast of a Knicks-Atlanta Hawks game.
Here's Mike Breen and Walt "Clyde" Frazier
prematurely announcing back on Oct. 27 that Mark Jackson would be on the broadcast this season: pic.twitter.com/UCiLQ2oE8E— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 16, 2023
Jackson was supposed to occasionally fill in for the 78-year-old Frazier this season. According to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News, 78-year-old Frazier has said he’d like to cut back on his work as a TV analyst for New York Knicks road games on MSG Network.
So, it was assumed that Jackson, who played for the Knicks for seven seasons from 1987-92 and 2000-02, would be doing fill-in work in his post-ESPN career. However, that’s no longer the case, reports The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand.
The reasoning?
Well, according to The Post, the Knicks objected to Jackson being on the team’s charter plane.
The team management, which is led by president Leon Rose, decided that Jackson would no longer be used as a fill-in for Frazier, partly due to an old quarrel between Jackson and an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff.
“We weren’t able to work something out this season,” an MSG Network spokesman told The Post.
But if there’s a quarrel between Jackson and an unnamed assistant coach on the Knicks’ coaching staff, perhaps this isn’t an arrangement that will work itself out in the future. Instead, New York may have to look at some other external options to help accommodate the aging Frazier, who has called Knicks games on TV and radio for more than 30 years.
