LEAVING A MARK
Knicks coaching candidate Jackson crashed in G.S. Here’s a blow-by-blow
MARK JACKSON’S tenure in Golden State is viewed through two very different lenses: Either he’s the coach who set up the Warriors for their dynasty, or was the only thing holding it back.
It’s a hypothetical debate that will never have a concrete answer, but also something the Knicks have to explore as they interview Jackson on Wednesday for their coaching position.
Here’s a timeline of Jackson’s drama-filled three seasons in Golden State, as told over the ensuing years by those involved and with relevant facts:
With no coaching experience, Jackson left his TV gig in 2011 to take over the Warriors — a franchise coming off three consecutive losing seasons with just one playoff series victory in 20 years. Steph Curry was their promising star, but the roster was otherwise inadequate. By Jackson’s third season — during which the Warriors won over 50 games for the first time since 1994 — they had added Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and were unquestionably on the rise. But there were also bubbling issues behind the scenes.
In the final weeks of his final season, Jackson demoted one of his assistant coaches, Brian Scalabrine, to coaching the D-League for his “disrespect”, and fired another, Darren Erman, for allegedly secretly recording conversations with Jackson. “The one that was demoted [Scalabrine], I would have had handled it six weeks, a month, two months earlier,” Jacksons told Sirius XM Radio soon after he was fired. “The things that took place from his side, I would have nipped it in the bud initially. That’s my fault for allowing it to go on. I’m pretty much a guy, just like ministry, I try to show you a different way of handling it. …I would do that differently (with Scalabrine). As far as assistants, you have to pick people who are loyal and dedicated. It’s inexcusable what the second assistant [Erman] did. That cannot be tolerated. For folks to say, two situations, it’s obviously documented that they both were 100 percent wrong. The only fault I got is hiring those guys. I would use wisdom in who is around me.”
Erman, who never publicly spoke on the subject, reportedly had designs on undermining Jackson to management. Erman resurfaced in the Celtics organization. Scalabrine, in a podcast with Yahoo! two years ago, described the atmosphere under Jackson as dysfunctional. He also said his demotion stemmed from a disagreement in a coaches meeting after a loss to the Spurs. “It was like a bombardment of (Jackson) trying to like get everyone to say that I’m a bad guy, and I’m a bad coach, and I should be off the staff,” Scalabrine said on the podcast. “I’m not sure what the point of it is, but just imagine after an emotional loss to the Spurs, and he goes to every coach and says, ‘Should Scalabrine be here? Is he a bad guy? Is he disrespectful?’ Or whatever he said. And what is an (assistant) coach going to do? You’re like some low-level coach, and Mark is your boss, and is Scalabrine disrespectful? Of course you’re going to say ‘yes’. So every person was like ‘yeah.’ So then he brought in management and did the same thing. So we have a meeting where it’s me versus coaches and management. We’re talking about (GM Bob Myers) and the assistant GM and the owner’s son (Kirk Lacob). And my whole thing was like, ‘I think there’s a time and place for this, right? Can’t we do this in a different time?’” Scalabrine never returned to coaching.
Two days after the Warriors lost in the first round of the 2014 playoffs, Jackson was fired. Owner Joe Lacob later justified it by claiming Jackson was widely disliked: “Part of it was that he couldn’t get along with anybody else in the organization,” Lacob said at a luncheon with venture capitalists. “And look, he did a great job, and I’ll always compliment him in many respects, but you can’t have 200 people in the organization not like you.”
Steve Kerr became the replacement and the Warriors immediately won a championship, then posted the best record in NBA history, then won a second championship. Despite this giant leap after his dismissal, Jackson is credited with installing one of the top defenses in the NBA. “I didn’t (make the defense great), Mark Jackson did,” Kerr said during last year’s Finals. “Honestly. When I was in TV, I was doing Warriors games for years; every year they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Mark came in and made a focus of being a tough defensive-minded team. …We already knew they had established that defensive identity. Our job was to improve the offense — to get more movement and more flow. And that was my focus.”
Jackson also had a strong relationship with Curry and was responsible for getting Andre Iguodala to the Warriors in 2013. Jackson never coached in the NBA before or after the Warriors — and Wednesday will be his second interview since getting fired.