Courtesy: CBS Sports
To say that I was surprised that Mark Jackson was fired as coach of the Golden State Warriors would be grossly understated. Even after upsetting the Denver Nuggets and advancing to the second round of the playoffs last season, I could hear the haunting steps of the Grim Reaper not far behind Jackson’s. There was just too much talk of a championship from clueless owner Joe Lacob, and an ungodly amount of unrealistic expectations for a depleted roster.
Another ridiculous sentiment following the firing of Jackson was that Warriors management wanted to go in another direction. In my mind the direction opposite of winning is losing. So when an owner and GM gives that same old run of the mill cliché of an answer, I always find it to be amusing. This team has not been associated with winning and making consecutive runs to the post season since the days of Run TMC (Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin).
That is until Mark Jackson strolled into Oracle Arena, Bible in hand and faith in his players. The aforementioned success of the Warriors had no affiliation with Joe Lacob since he didn’t even own the team during this time. This “new” NBA and the way it operates is slowly killing professional basketball! Technical fouls for gestures towards opponents, fines for “flopping”, 10 minutes to review plays on the monitor, and coaches being fired for actually DOING THEIR JOBS! Utterly ridiculous!
I’ve just come to terms with the fact that Mark Jackson has fallen victim to the “Larry Brown” rule. This rule calls for a coach to be hired by an organization that was in shambles before he arrived and during his tenure with the team, they experience more victories, better team chemistry, selfish or clueless players learn to include their teammates into the offense, and the team becomes successful all around the board. Brown did it during his days in Philly with the mercurial Allen Ezail Iverson, followed by his stint in Detroit with Chauncey Billups that eventually led to a championship. Coach Brown was on his way to success in New York before being sideswiped by Isaiah Thomas. Are you getting the story line so far?
Courtesy: ESPN
Before Mark Jackson arrived in Oakland, the Warriors were just a team of scorers who only knew one way of playing basketball. During his tenure in the Bay Area, coach Jackson turned the Warriors into not only an entertaining offensive show but a winning one as well. Now whatever gripes upper management had with Jackson the world would never really know. I will say this to shed some light on how much Jackson meant to Golden State, he turned a slow, undersized, and somewhat skilled player (Draymond Green), into a player his team came to rely on during a hard fought seven game series with the more talented Los Angeles Clippers!
It takes a special coach to get that kind of production out of a player that nobody gives a second thought to. So Joe Lacob shouldn’t wonder why the rumors will start flying once Stephen Curry opts out of the final year of his current contract. After all, this is the culture he’s cultivated under his watch out in Oakland. A culture of non-commitment and uncertainty. A culture where your reward for success is the unemployment line.
