Thus ends the “you kids get off my lawn” tenure of Phil Jackson, now former team president of the New York Knicks. Jackson and the team parted ways today after a mercifully brief but endlessly entertaining series of outbursts and mistakes. It turns out that the “Zen Master” had become a curmudgeon. From The Ringer comes this concise list of his many sins:

Recent transgressions have included: placing franchise gem and cornerstone Kristaps Porzingis on the trade block after Phil didn’t like that he skipped his exit meeting; reportedly falling asleep during draft prospect workouts; insisting on viewing the game of basketball through the lens of his triangle-shaped glasses; and turning his and the franchise’s relationship with Melo needlessly contentious. These past two years have been an incessant stream of disheartening philosophizing by one of the game’s greatest minds. From the glory of 13 rings, and publicly beefing with LeBron, to the disapproval of even his most loyal followers. These last two weeks of ineptitude finally culminated in a fall from grace, and resulted with the seemingly impossible for Jackson: his firing.

Jackson famously coached Michael Jordan (the greatest basketball player in the history of the known universe), Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant to an impressive series of NBA titles — six with the Chicago Bulls and five with the Los Angeles Lakers (three with the Shaq/Kobe combo). He joined the Knicks as a franchise savior, the man who’d bring one of the NBA’s most hapless teams back into the promised land. Instead, the game had simply passed him by, and he was reportedly too arrogant to notice:

He never did the legwork, the scouting, the recruiting, all the things that the two Jerrys — Krause and West — did for him in Chicago and Los Angeles. The league moved too fast for Jackson, and he never showed any desire to catch up. If you’re thinking that Phil might have newfound respect for the jobs done by the two Jerrys, especially the late Krause, whom he regularly mocked while the Bulls were winning six titles, think again.
Jackson won a record 11 combined rings with the Bulls and Lakers, but he’s been at the bottom of all league metrics measuring humility for a very long time.

There is no doubt that Jackson was an outstanding coach of his star-laden teams, but the conservative in me always rebelled at genuflecting at the altar of his New Age ways. Thankfully, we won’t read any more stories like this:

Derrick Rose had never attempted mindfulness sessions in his first seven years in the N.B.A. There had been moments with his therapist here and there that seemed similar, but nothing overseen by the Chicago Bulls. Just the thought of Tom Thibodeau, his old coach, looming over a meditation setting, his gravelly voice booming as he tried to instill calm, made Rose laugh.
But in New York, Rose has come to enjoy new experiences, and in an organization run by a man nicknamed the Zen Master, that means taking part in team meetings based on mindfulness.

Phil Jackson achieved great things, but he also hopefully learned a timeless lesson. Pride does indeed go before the fall.