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I’d like to believe I know sports pretty well (hip-hop music too, but we’ll stick with sports for the purposes of this article). It’s why this website was created. It’s why I make predictions and seem to do reasonably well with them. But every once in awhile, a curveball gets tossed into the often mundane day-to-day sports news cycle that can awaken you like the teacher calling on you in class just as you were about to nod off.

The Phil Jackson and Darrelle Revis stories from last week aren’t really related, other than the fact that they — with a little help from the universal lubricant — found themselves on two teams on which any knowledgeable sports fans wouldn’t have ever expected them. Jackson is a 68-year-old hall of fame basketball coach, while Revis is an all-pro football player 40 years his junior. Jackson is an icon his sport, while Revis is merely a very good player in his. Yet I couldn’t watch the two stories unfold without being flabbergasted by the very idea of what we all had just witnessed.

For Jackson, the opportunity to be the new President of Basketball Operations for the New York Knickerbockers is an incredibly unique one. Obviously, it’s the first ever front office job for the winningest coach ever in NBA basketball history. But Phil Jack is notorious for not setting himself up to catch a brick. He knows when to pounce on an opportunity, and he knows when to get out of a situation when is advantageous for him. Some might call it opportunistic, others might simply call it…smart.

Jackson hopped on the Michael Jordan train just as it was leaving the station. Jordan was already an established superstar, but had yet to break through as a champion in the league when Phil replaced Doug Collins as the Chicago Bulls head honcho in 1989. In just his second season, he guided them to the first of his six titles in the Chi.

For his next trick, Jackson — who had his pick of any job he wanted — slid into a tailor made gig in Los Angeles. The Lakers had Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant on the roster, but the promising duo had failed to ascend to championship status to that point. Jackson brought his experience, pedigree, triangle offense, “zen” and (most importantly) respectability to his post with the Lakers. “The Lake Show” would put together three straight championships in Phil’s first three seasons. When the Shaq and Kobe feud ripped the team apart, Jackson dipped out and let Rudy Tomjanovich soil his reputation run the show.

To his credit, Jackson did return to coach a lackluster Lakers team in 2005, but he was re-inheriting a humbled Kobe Bryant, who was at the peak of his powers. It was only a matter of time before the organization put the ancillary parts of a champion around Kobe & Phil, resulting in two more titles. When the end of this new Lakers title run was imminent, Phil faded to black once again and retired to his home in Montana.

Sidebar: Well, not exactly. His longtime girlfriend, now fiancee Jeanie Buss is the daughter of then Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss. So really he retired to Beverly Hills or something.

Phil Jackson doesn’t coach losers. That’s the point here. His own coaching acumen is a large reason for this— so too is his ability discern winning situations from afar. This is precisely what makes his decision to run the Knicks so puzzling. Phil is knocking on 70 and is as esteemed as any non-player in the history of American team sports. So why waste valuable fishing time on a rebuilding project for the ages in New York? And why waste time messing around with James Dolan, the Knicks owner who has the absolute worst reputation of any owner in American team sports?

Phil has always liked sitting in the big boy chair. The Knicks gave him that chance.

Money is one reason (five years for approx. $60M in total). Power is another. He also might be indirectly sticking it to the Lakers for not hiring him to run their basketball operations. And Phil does have a connection with the franchise, having been a player on the two Knicks championship teams of the early 1970s. But for Jackson to tether his name and reputation to this franchise at this time is nothing short of staggering.

Right now, the Knicks are 27-40 and (if the season ended today) are outside the Eastern Conference playoffs. And they have the second highest payroll in the league, which makes it difficult to move this group of highly-paid underachievers. They also do not own their first round pick this year or in 2016, and their lone star player, Carmelo Anthony, will soon be a free agent and has seemingly been linked to just about every team in the league except the Knicks. New York fans have grown so disillusioned, they actually planned a demonstration at Madison Square Garden this week! And above all else, they have James Dolan’s black magic hovering over the franchise’s every move.

Sidebar: In sports, that lingering black magic can literally take decades to fumigate. I’m a Cleveland sports fan, so you can take my word to the bank on this one.

Turning around the Knicks will take a lot of time, hard work and patience. Remember all those fun things Phil Jackson brought to the Lakers? You know— experience, Zen and all that? Well the majority of that will not apply to this latest venture because again, Phil has never done this before. Reports also suggest he will be spending a fair amount of his time 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles. So any part of his championship aura that Dolan and Knick fans were praying their players (specifically Melo) would absorb through osmosis (maybe??) will only be done on a part time basis. Or by Skype.

Phil has enough money and enough of a glistening legacy that he does not need to take on a role like this. And in no way does it parallel any of his previous NBA stops. Yet, he took the job anyway.

I never thought I’d see the day.

I never thought I’d see the day Darrelle Revis would suit up for the New England Patriots. When he’s 37 and he couldn’t cover my Mom with safety help over the top? Maybe. But not now. Not at age 28 and still in (or around) his prime.

In what some might consider a down year, the cornerback from Aliquippa, PA actually made the Pro-Bowl and was named Comeback Player of the Year by the Sporting News. This, despite being largely misused by his coaches and battling through minor injuries throughout the year (and returning from a blown ACL). The man can still play, regardless of what Richard Sherman says.

Sidebar: Richard Sherman LOVES a good twitter beef. Have you seen the one he had with Revis? Or this one?? Or this one??? I love how Chad Johnson of all people is the voice of reason in the last one.

Knowing he can still play, Revis has never been afraid to demand what he (and his agent) felt was fair compensation for his elite skill-set. He has a history of complaining about contracts that he signed and holding out (the sports world’s fun way of saying he didn’t show up for work) until a new deal that pays him more money is reached. He did this multiple times over the course of five seasons with the New York Jets, to the point that ownership felt his antics did not outweigh his contribution on the field. So they decided to make him Tampa Bay’s problem.

Revis received a fresh six-year $96 million deal (no guaranteed money) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers not even one year ago. However after a regime change, the team felt Revis’ play was not worth the $16M per year salary cap hit. The Bucs were then unable to find a suitable trade partner for one of the league’s best players. Why? Because every potential partner would’ve asked for Revis to restructure his contract and take less money, which if didn’t guess by now, wasn’t bout to happen. Consequently, Revis was released by Tampa, which afforded him the opportunity to negotiate another new deal on his own terms.

Darrelle Revis is bout his dollars. His approach to the business of football is off-putting to many, earning him the nickname “Me-vis” in some circles. People love to hate on him because he stacks paper to the ceiling and rides on 24-inch chrome (word to Young Reezy!!!). But in the NFL, where the contracts ARE NOT guaranteed, and every Sunday looks like a war zone as 20-something-year-old-body after 20-something-year-old-body is carried off the field, can you really blame him?

In 2012 HHSR wrote an article on why Maurice Jones-Drew’s holdout was justified. It predictably angered some Jacksonville fans, but MJD eventually ended his holdout and never got his new deal, thus meaning he went underpaid for at least two of the five years on his contract. Now just shy of his 29th birthday, he’s a free agent in a league that is rapidly devaluing the contribution of the running back and he has yet to find a new team.

Jay Z once said, “Bite your tongue for no one, and whatever is said/Take it how they want, a closed mouth don’t get fed”. Darrelle Revis knows his worth and he isn’t afraid to tell his employer all about it. Finding himself in some type of contract turmoil seemingly every offseason hasn’t endeared Revis to fans, media or front office people around the league. But you can bet there’s a large segment of NFL players that have his back. It isn’t hard to envision Revis’ approach to contract negotiation being emulated by more elite level players in the future, which if it does, would make Darrelle Revis something of a modern day Curt Flood.

Enter the New England Patriots.

One of the best run and most consistently competitive franchises in all of sports in the 21st century, the Patriots have had continued success for the better part of the last two decades for three main reasons: Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and years of not overpaying players not named Tom Brady. Belichick runs a tight ship in Boston and under no circumstances would he tolerate the shenanigans of Revis, yet somehow last week Revis became a Patriot, signing off on a new two-year deal which will pay him $12M in 2014 and has a team option for 2015.

In the past, the Patriots have not hesitated to jettison any player they deemed detrimental to locker room chemistry, or who complained about their contract too boisterously (see Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Ty Law, and the list could soon include Vince Wilfork). So much so that some even believe Brady himself will one day be a cap casualty. Revis’ contract demands don’t really jive with “The Patriot Way”, which makes the pairing highly illogical on the surface.

But Belichick also wants to win. And now is not the time for the Pats to get bogged down by their trademark price-taggery. Brady will be 37 this year and time is running out. The rival Denver Broncos know time is short on their quarterback too, which explains why GM John Elway went shopping for Pro Bowlers to sure up his below average defense. As NFL Network’s Mike Silver said, the AFC is an arms race, and the Patriots were rapidly falling behind. Drastic measures had to be taken just for New England to keep pace.

In recent years, the Pats formula for success has been trying to patch up their team without spending big bucks on players and letting Tom Brady work his magic with inferior parts. The move to sign Revis signifies an end to this strategy, at least for now.

But I never saw it coming.

Power moves like Jackson to the Knicks and Revis to the Patriots are typically reserved for parties that share similar principles. When those principles align at the right time, you get Peyton Manning to the Broncos, or Carmelo to the Knicks even. Obviously, money can change A LOT of those principles, but to see men like Jackson and Belichick bend their core philosophies, the very philosophies that have made them great, well…I never would’ve seen that coming.

I wonder what the sports world will have in store tomorrow?