Some fun Knicks news for your Friday afternoon: Phil Jackson might just be going absolutely insane. Earlier today, the NY Times published an interview with Jackson and Knicks GM Steve Mills, and Phil said some stuff that came off as a little … uh, out of touch. Let’s start here, with Phil explaining his infamous “how’s it goink?” tweet:
Q. In the middle of the playoffs, you took to Twitter to ask N.B.A. analysts to give you “some diagnostics” on how 3-point-oriented teams were faring. It struck most as a criticism of teams like the Warriors who take a lot of 3-point shots. You asked, “How’s it goink?” What was that about?
JACKSON: They have all these analysts. I just wanted to see someone come back to me with statistics: Is 3-point shooting in the playoffs as consistent as it is in the regular season? Does your 3-point-shooting percentage change because you’re in the playoffs? No one figured that one out. And that’s probably me being obtuse to leave it open at the end. But “goink” is one of those New York expressions that we use, and I will tell you this: I learned something. Someone sent me the fact that if you look it up on Urban Dictionary, you’ll find out what it means in today’s society.
Q. Should I look?
JACKSON: Well, it’s rather bizarre to say the least.
Q. So it wasn’t just a typo?
JACKSON: “Goink” is a castoff expression, right? Instead of, “How’s it going?,” it’s, “How’s it goink?” It turned out to be either a combination of a mixed ethnic group: part Korean, part Chinese. Or it’s a vernacular term for how do you deal with a sexual partner.
Q. That was not your intention though?
JACKSON: No, I had no idea.
Per, like, the entirety of Basketball Twitter, here are some Urban Dictionary entries for “goink“:
Yikes! There’s a lot of other seriously insane stuff in the interview—including a defense of The Triangle and Phil admitting that he thinks he should’ve gotten some votes for Executive of the Year—and then it ends with a word about the hobbies of your favorite Knicks executives:
Q. These are long days. What do you guys do when you’re not working?
MILLS: I don’t know what we’re going to do now. We were watching the finals and hockey.
JACKSON: He walks his dogs.
MILLS: I walk my dogs.
Same.
