Phil Jackson has made quite a few deals in his role as president of the New York Knicks. His tenure started off slowly as far as trades and moves were concerned but he more than made up for that with a very busy summer sixteen. Although some of his moves have resulted in landing players like Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, drafting Kristaps Porzingis and more, there is one move he didn’t make that still bothers him.

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“One of the first deals I engineered when I came back to New York was to trade Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington, Samuel Dalembert, plus a second-round pick that the Mavs owed to the Celtics,” Jackson told Charley Rosen of todaysfastbreak.com. “In talking with Boston, I was given the option of taking that pick or else taking Jae Crowder. I liked Crowder but I thought he wouldn’t get much of a chance to play behind Carmelo, so I took the pick which turned out to be Cleanthony Early. While Cleanthony has missed lots of time in the past two seasons with us, he still has the potential to be a valuable player. Even so, I should have taken Crowder.”

Cleanthony has been in the league for two seasons now and despite showing a lot of promise coming out of Wichita State, he hasn’t done anything in the pros worth mentioning. In fact, when you talk about him the first thing that comes to mind is the fact he was shot and robbed outside of a strip club in Queen last year. While there is still plenty of time for him to change the direction of his career, it likely won’t be with the Knicks by the time that ever happens, it at all.

Meanwhile, Crowder had a great season last year, averaging career highs in points (14.2 ppg) and rebounds (5.1 rpg). He could have definitely fit in well with the Knicks, especially with Melo playing at the power forward spot more recently.

Jackson knows nothing can be done at this point and brushes off the bad decision. “Anyway, for all of us, making mistakes are part of the learning process.”

H/T TheScore