Charley Rosen, a long-time business partner and friend of Phil Jackson, has come to the defense of the championship coach’s defense in regards to the comments made about LeBron James last week. With the NBA world against what Jackson said, for the most part, Jackson does have one supporter, and it’s a predictable one.
Rosen was shocked that James took offense to the comments, and stated Jackson deserves the benefit of the doubt in this situation, believing that James was overly sensitive on the matter.
In an interview with the New York Post, Rosen didn’t mince his words.
“That was such bulls**t,’’ Rosen told The Post. “All of a sudden it’s a bad word. But [Allen] Iverson talks about his boys. It’s taking politically incorrect to the nth degree. Do I think he meant anything racial by it? Do you think there’s a racial bone in his body? There have been racist coaches in the NBA and Phil isn’t close to being one of them.
“It was overblown. It’s manufactured. Why is LeBron so sensitive about it? It’s Phil Jackson. If a so-called cracker said it, OK. But it’s Phil. Please. He’s not going to respect Phil again. Ridiculous. There’s racially sensitive things to worry about than freaking out about ‘posse.’ ”
It was rich of Charley to claim James’ feelings were fabricated, as he has no affiliation whatsoever with James, nor does he know him or his inner circle personally.
Needless to say, Rosen doesn’t understand the magnitude of this degrading language, which breaks down the hard work James’ team and business partner Maverick Carter have put in for a long time. These comments shed a negative light on the dedication of true businessman, and it has shown by the support James has received from the wider NBA community. Jackson is yet to publicly apologize to James and Carter, both of whom were outraged with the comments.
Jackson has received a lot of negative attention following the comments, but at least one of his friends came to his defense.