Jackson Doesn’t Fret Over Decision

It wasn’t that long ago that Phil Jackson dined with Isiah Thomas, listening intently as the New York Knick president regaled him with visions of returning to New York City and restoring the Knicks’ luster.

Jackson appreciated it, pondered it and ultimately decided against it, signing instead on the Lakers’ dotted line for three years and $30 million.

He will see the team he could have coached, and the road not taken, when the Knicks play the Lakers on Wednesday in Staples Center.

“Obviously, I’m a person with sentimentalities towards where I’ve played,” Jackson said. “Isiah really appealed to the fact of the history of the Knicks, [my] playing with them 11 years. ... That is all well and fine, but there was still some unfinished business I felt with the Lakers.”

Jackson, 60, had other reasons for not taking the Knick job. There was familiarity among the Lakers, with the roster and the front office. And he mentioned an avoidance of the New York media, which is made of “snakes and nastiness and innuendos ... those things I knew I was going to be able to live without,” he said.

Larry Brown was the eventual winner in the Knicks’ coaching sweepstakes, accepting a four-year, $40-million contract.

Jackson said he doesn’t think about what could have been, his parallel universe on the East Coast.

“No,” he said. “It’s not part of my makeup.”

So, did he make the right decision?

“We’ll see,” he said, smiling.

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Forward Slava Medvedenko, who passed out briefly in an elevator Sunday in the team hotel in Philadelphia, felt better Monday.

“It was just being on the crowded elevator and not sleeping well the night before,” said Medvedenko, who will have more tests this week in Los Angeles. “The elevator stopped on every floor and I got a little dizzy. I just started to close my eyes and woke up on the floor.”

The episode was pinned primarily on fatigue and a poor diet that day. Medvedenko, 26, had been getting spotty sleep because of back spasms that caused him to sit out the Lakers’ game at Philadelphia on Friday.

His breakfast Sunday was a candy bar.

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Jackson offered his perspective on the amnesty rule, which allowed teams to waive one player over the summer to lessen the impact of luxury taxes.

The Knicks saved $21.3 million by waiving forward Jerome Williams, and the Lakers saved nearly $30 million by waiving forward Brian Grant, who signed with the Phoenix Suns.

“A lot of people felt that the amnesty rule was done for the Knicks, [to] let New York get themselves back into a position where they can compete,” Jackson said. “And the Lakers obviously benefited from that too.”

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The game against New York on Wednesday will start at 7 p.m. to accommodate ESPN.