Phil Jackson hasn’t found a New York apartment yet, but he has a favorite restaurant — and it has a perfect name. The new president of the New York Knickerbockers goes to the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill. But if he plans to become a regular, he better start tipping better: Jackson, who is getting $12 million a year, left just $25 on the bill of about $140, sources said. This despite getting his appetizers and desserts comped, no less.
Jackson was at the NYU hangout on University Place on Friday night with Steve Kerr, his leading candidate to coach the Knicks next season, for a three-hour dinner. Lots of talk about the triangle offense, I am sure.
“He [Jackson] has been in quite a bit,” a manager told me yesterday. “He’s friends with one of our regulars, Dr. Danny Rudolph.”
Jackson has known Rudolph since the former’s playing days on the Knicks’ championship teams in ’70 and ’73, when Jackson used to play in Rudolph’s Tuesday night pickup game in Greenwich Village.
Asked why a pro player would risk injury playing for free with amateurs, Rudolph said, “They are basketball junkies. They couldn’t get enough.”
Rudolph, whose dental office is nearby on West Ninth Street, said Jackson came to the recent Passover seder he held at the Knickerbocker. “We’ve remained friends all these years.”
Rudolph’s wife, Nancy Tela, a real estate agent at Stribling, is helping Jackson find an apartment, preferably on the Upper West Side.
As for Jackson’s meager tipping, one basketball fan quipped: “Apparently he doesn’t just want Carmelo [Anthony] to take a pay cut . . . waiters too.”