When Phil Jackson heard Hornacek call out the names of Carl Malone and John Stockton, he almost blurted out, "Are you kidding me?" ”

What the hell is the facial paralysis coach doing? Is Hornacek going to transplant the "Jazz Three" to the Knicks, then you can simply bring the retired Jerry Sloan back as an advisor.

Phil Jackson was still complaining in his heart, but he didn't expect Hornacek to really speak.

"And I'd like to hire a full-time technical advisor for the team, who is also an old acquaintance of yours......"

I'm X, and it's really Jerry Sloan.

Phil Jackson only felt his brain buzz and exploded, Hornacek, you must be teasing me if you have facial paralysis, even if you want to invite someone out of the mountain, but now someone can really invite these three "outdoor masters"?

Phil Jackson's concerns are not wrong at all, and the three old people mentioned by Hornacek are really not ordinary people's invitations.

Jerry Sloan has been recuperating at home since his embarrassing resignation from the Utah Jazz in 2011 (when he was forced out by Deron Williams). In the years since, he has only made two public appearances, on January 31, 2014, at the Jazz's home Energy Solutions arena for his jersey retirement ceremony, and on June 9, 2016, when he received the Chuck Daley Award, the league's "Coach's Lifetime Achievement Award."

Of course, being at home does not mean that the old coach Sloan no longer cares about the NBA, but also pays attention to his old club, the Utah Jazz, and his former disciples. For example, when Hornacek was still coaching the Suns the year before, he once visited the old coach Sloan, asked him for experience in on-the-spot coaching, and wanted to ask him to go out of the mountain to guide him.

It's a pity that the old coach refused Hornacek on the grounds that he no longer cared about the affairs of the rivers and lakes.

Last year, when Hornacek was in danger of being out of class, he approached his mentor Sloan again, hoping that he could save himself from fire and water. But at that time, Sloan's health was at his weakest (Sloan was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia at the time), and Sloane, who could not even walk steadily, naturally could not help Hornacek.

This time, Hornacek came to ask for help again, and Sloane, who was gradually recovering, was a little moved.

Speaking of which, Sloan does have some interest in this Knicks team, no, to be exact, he is interested in Roy, "I would love to see what this young man named Roy can accomplish." With anticipation and curiosity, Jerry Sloan became the chief technical advisor to the New York Knicks.

Like the 74-year-old coach Sloan, John Stockton, another key player of the Jazz team at the time, also chose to live in seclusion after retiring, and he was more low-key than Jerry Sloan. After showing his face at the 2009 Nai Smith Memorial Hall of Fame, he almost disappeared from the world.

You don't even hear the slightest bit about Stockton, the newspapers, the TV, the website, the forums, Stockton's name disappears all at once, and it's like he's completely out of the basketball world.

Finding Stockton took a lot of effort on Hornacek's part.

Through the coach, friend, and agent of the year, Hornacek found this old comrade-in-arms and old friend after a period of tossing. Like his old coach Sloan, Stockton may not be in public, but his passion for basketball has always been built. When Hornacek found Stockton, he was in Europe to accompany his son, David Stockton, to play in the Europa League.

The low-key Stockton initially declined Hornacek's invitation, but when Hornacek played Jerry Sloan's card, everything changed, and Stockton was persuaded by Jerry Sloan's kindness to him and his willingness to work with him again.

Finally, there's Karl Malone, the second-highest Hall of Fame power forward on the NBA's overall scoring list, who is more likely to live than his partner Stockton.

Back in his hometown of Louisiana, Carl Malone enclosed a plot of land and opened a farm and became an authentic landowner. He is active by nature, not only taking care of the farm affairs himself, but also going out on hunting expeditions from time to time, by posting photos of shooting brown bears, slashing wild boars, or watching a live video of an axe wielding a log.

In short, Malone can't stand the loneliness, Malone still has a turbulent heart, the reason why he didn't return to the basketball court, didn't return to the NBA, is just because - TMD no one called himself! Compared to the commander on the field and the brain of the team, Stockton, everyone seems to think that Malone, whose chest muscles are big enough to trap people, is not a piece of coaching material, so of course no one will find him.

Therefore, for the recruitment of Malone, Hornacek was the smoothest.

Seeing that the coaching staff has been expanded, on the other side, Phil Jackson also contacted Thomas Carter, the "miracle doctor" of the Phoenix Suns.

Who is Thomas Carter? He is known as the "miracle doctor" in the mouth of fans and is the winner of the best team doctor in the NBA. There are many legends about Dr. Carter, such as his rescue of the end-of-life Vince Carter, his helping the aging Steve Nash race around the court and winning two regular-season MVP trophies, and his ability to put the league's famous "Glass Man" Hill back on the court.

Needless to say, just look at the list of stars who have been cured by Dr. Carter to assemble an All-Star team: Steve Nash, Michael Reed, Leonard Barbossa, Vince Carter, Grant Hill, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Shaquille O'Neal......

As Hornacek said, Dr. Carter's current situation with the Suns is not very satisfactory, especially last season, when several of the team's main players Booker, Bledsoe, Chandler, Knight, and Morris were injured in turn, which made the management complain about Dr. Carter's ability.

Life is like you, when you can get 100 points on every test, then getting 90 points once in a chance is your regression, and you have to be criticized. And "Miracle Doctor" Carter was blamed by the management for no reason because of this "90 points", and this attitude continues until this season.

The team's management doesn't trust Dr. Carter as much as it used to, and Carter, the former "miracle doctor", has become what the management now calls a "yellow-faced woman", which makes Thomas Carter a little uncomfortable.

So Phil Jackson's call was just right, and it might be a real hit and off.

Of course, aside from that, Thomas Carter has a keen interest in the Knicks himself, not because of the allure of the metropolis of New York or because of an invitation from his old acquaintance Hornacek.

Like Jerry Sloane, Carter "The Miracle Doctor" is also interested in Roy.

In fact, when the Phoenix Suns originally planned to select Roy in the draft, they asked Carter to do an analysis of Roy's physical condition.

At that time, Carter searched the database of the American high school league and did not find a single physical test report about Roy, and then he asked someone to go to China to find Roy's file, but he did not find a complete physical test report about Roy.

What does it mean that I can't find a physical test report for Roy? Could it be that Roy only started playing basketball in the last two years? Could it be that Roy came from an amateur player? Carter, who came to this conclusion, was completely stunned.

Roy suddenly came to the basketball world like an alien, or rather, he was a miracle, a player who was silent and unknown before the age of eighteen, suddenly appeared one day in the basketball mecca of the United States, and conquered the entire American high school basketball world with overwhelming strength.

It was at this time that Dr. Carter's unique interest in Roy was formed, and he continued to search for it, eventually obtaining Roy's physical test report from Bill Duffy through a friend.

It's okay not to read this physical test report, but it's even more terrible to look at it.

Dr. Carter, who saw Roy's physical test report, was undoubtedly shocked by Roy's perverted body data, and he couldn't believe that such a child with a body against the sky turned out to be a yellow race, a Chinese.

His potential is limitless, and his future is limitless.

If Bill Duffy's physical report is correct, then Roy is really a talented player.

From the point of view of a professional team doctor, a kinesiology expert, Roy's body is perfect, even if his skill is zero, the team is worth investing in him.

Dr. Carter immediately fed back his advice to the team, and he hoped that the team would make a move as soon as possible and trade Roy for the draft pick, but McDonald, the general manager of the team at the time, said with a little contempt, "Roy is unlikely to be in the top three of the draft, even if my team selects Roy with the No. 4 pick, it may be a risk, and I don't want to be ridiculed like Harris (the general manager of the Bucks who chose Yi Jianlian back then)." ”

MacDonald's complacency undoubtedly hit Dr. Carter's self-esteem deeply, and he felt that the general manager was questioning his professional competence, and their relationship became more and more estranged until the moment of their breakup......