Mark Jackson to face Knicks Wednesday

Mark Jackson does not try to hide his emotions, so he did not deny that he was close to tears before his debut as an NBA coach Sunday night. He added, though, that the one emotion he doesn't carry is disappointment -- especially about missing out on his dream job.

Jackson, in his first week as coach of the Golden State Warriors, will face the Knicks Wednesday night in another watershed game. It will be his first time against his hometown team, the team with which he made a name for himself as a professional player and the team that he had hoped to coach. He insisted it won't be a tear-shedding game.

He says he has moved on from the sting of being passed over for Mike D'Antoni in 2008. "I overcome it because I'm a guy of tremendous faith in God and I believe that what is mine is mine," he said in a conference call Monday afternoon with New York reporters. "If I don't get it, it's not meant for me. If I never coached in the league, I would have understood that. I don't live with disappointment."

Jackson is grateful for the opportunities he has had, particularly becoming a successful broadcaster on the No. 1 ABC/ESPN crew with Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy. The latter two were on hand Sunday night to telecast Jackson's first coaching effort, a 105-86 loss to the Clippers. "I thought it was a class gesture, also adding Chris Mullin to the telecast," he said, referring to his old St. John's and Indiana Pacers teammate and former Golden State general manager.

It wasn't just their presence that got to him, either. "I was fine until I looked behind me and saw my kids and looked straight across and saw my wife," he said. "That moved me. I had to regroup."

The Warriors really have yet to regroup after having lost the bidding contest for Tyson Chandler to the Knicks. "We believed we were very close to getting him,'' Jackson said. "We thought he was an incredible character guy, a true professional. He could have been the face of our defense. We went after him hard, but at the end of the day, the financial and the opportunity to play in New York City won out."

So the new coach already is down one to his old team. He asserted that he is so enmeshed in coaching and teaching (his roster includes rookie Charles Jenkins of Hofstra, a fellow New Yorker) that the Knicks' visit is "just another game to me."

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But the Knicks never will be just another team to him. "I think," Jackson said, "they've done some great things."