Some Things We Noticed About Phil Jackson's Engagement-Ending Tweet

By
Hannah Keyser

Knicks president Phil Jackson and Lakers president Jeanie Buss, together since 1999 and engaged since 2012, are no longer together. Jackson announced the split in a tweet earlier tonight. This is undoubtably a difficult time in both their lives. But we’ve got some observations and, frankly, some inferences about the limited information about their breakup and the way it’s been released.

Here’s some background information: Phil Jackson was finally convinced to take the couples conversations about marriage to the next level after 13 years together by Buss’s father’s failing health back in 2012. He proposed on Christmas Day 2012. He announced the breakup two days after Christmas this year.

Here’s what we’re working with:

Here are some things we noticed:

  • Although tweeted at 10:51 p.m., the statement was screengrabbed at 6:57 a.m.
  • The statement was composed on an iPad, in Notes.
  • At 6:57 a.m. (at least on the day his engagement ends) Phil Jackson has what looks like the “Do Not Disturb” option lit on his iPad—his iPad.
  • The statement uses first-person plural pronouns.
  • Soon after Jackson’s tweet, Jeanie retweeted him and then tweeted her own, separate, thoughts about the breakup.

And here’s what we’ve inferred:

  • Almost exactly four years after they got engaged—and several months after Buss told ESPN that, no, actually, Jackson has no plans to leave cold New York and the bad Knicks, who are likely to eventually fire his ass for making them bad, to be in sunny Los Angeles with his fiancée—one or both of them started wondering if this marriage was ever going to happen.
  • Jackson composed a statement announcing their separation in the early hours of Dec. 27 while pointedly ignoring any potential emails (I guess? Do people get texts on their iPads?) from his soon-to-be ex.
  • Because it’s three hours earlier on the west coast and Jackson likely was in New York, he had to wait a while for Buss to wake up and approve the statement. If she was granted that option.
  • It does not sound like they wrote it together.
  • Buss can do better.