Sources: Rambis is Phil's preferred choice in NY

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The New York Knicks are giving strong consideration to making Kurt Rambis their full-time head coach, according to league sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that Rambis, who has served as the Knicks’ interim coach since the early February firing of Derek Fisher, is the preferred choice of Knicks president ‎Phil Jackson, who sources say is pushing for a new multi-year deal for Rambis despite New York’s 8-16 struggles since the coaching change.

Rambis worked two stints as an assistant coach to Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers and has grown very close to the most decorated coach in the game’s history thanks to that longstanding relationship, joining Jackson for four of his 11 championship rings. Sources say Jackson has had a much more frequent presence at Knicks practices at home since Rambis took over.

With Jackson, 70, insisting since he took his post with the Knicks in March 2014 that he can no longer handle the day-to-day rigors of coaching, sources say he sees Rambis as the coach best suited to not only run the Triangle offense he favors but also manage the team using Jackson’s long-held principles.

Jackson, of course, had similar hopes for Fisher, one of his longtime on-the-court leaders with the Lakers. But New York made the abrupt decision to fire the 41-year-old just a season and a half into his five-year, $25 million deal to coach the Knicks, with Fisher sporting a record of 40-96.

ESPN.com reported at the time that a 1-9 skid after the Knicks’ 22-22 start this season, on top of concerns within the organization about a fractured coaching staff and the speed of Fisher’s transition from player to coach, contributed to the timing of the move. According to ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst, only the first four years of Fisher’s contract were guaranteed, worth a total of $17 million.

The Knicks, though, have continued to fade since Fisher’s ouster, entering Wednesday’s play at 31-47, though that includes an 0-9 record when star forward Carmelo Anthony doesn’t play. It remains to be seen how Anthony would respond to an elevation to full-time for Rambis after saying last month he hoped Jackson, in addition to considering Rambis, would open up the position and consider external candidates, with established names such as Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson all available ‎and possessing Knicks ties.

Jackson last publicly addressed the Knicks’ coaching situation in March during a West Coast road trip and said then that Rambis is “perfectly capable” of coaching the club on a full-time basis.

“Kurt and I have a relationship that goes back to 2001,” Jackson said. “He knows the ins and outs, what pleases me and [what] probably I want to have changed. … We have a relationship that’s much more tight [than Jackson’s relationship with Fisher].”

If Rambis indeed succeeds in landing the permanent job, it would be his second full-time coaching stint in the NBA after a two-season run with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2009-10 and 2010-11. Rambis posted a 32-132 record in those two seasons with the Wolves following a 24-13 stint as the Lakers’ interim coach during the 1998-99 season that was shortened to 50 games because of a lengthy lockout.

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