‘Until you can’t do it no more’ — ex-Warrior Jackson, 40, still ballin’
If Bob Myers is looking for a 6-foot-8 swingman who can run the point, shoot the three, play high-level defense, and give the Warriors some Draymond Green-level grit and leadership, he might want to wander over to Oracle Arena on Friday night. The Big3 — the upstart threeon-three professional basketball league — is in town. One of the teams, the Killer 3s, has this intense kid they call Stack Jack. Stephen Jackson. Actually, Myers knows his team history and surely remembers that Jackson was the heartbeat of the “We Believe” Warriors who upset the topseeded Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs in 2007.
That was a crazy, couldn’thappen situation, so who can blame Jackson for still believing?
“You know what would be a great situation?” Jackson said in a phone interview. “I come out there (to Oakland), we have a good game and we win, and the Warriors sign me to a oneyear deal. Wouldn’t that be great?”
It would be great for the media. When the “We Believe” Warriors reported for training camp for the following season, I asked Jackson if he had any new tattoos. He pulled up his shirt to reveal a large tattoo of praying hands holding a 9mm pistol.
“That means I pray I never have to use that gun again,” Jackson explained.
That’s the type of interesting people and accomplished ballplayers the Big3 is trotting around the country in its second season. At its first two stops this year, the one-day tournament drew an average of 15,000 fans. It’s playground style three-on-three, first team
to 50 wins. There is a 14-second shot clock, and there are four-point-shot zones from 30 feet out.
The league is stocked with players and coaches with Oakland backgrounds: Baron Davis (player), Gary Payton (coach) and Rick Barry (coach). Amy Trask, Al Davis’ longtime right-hand person, is the league’s chairwoman. They’ll play four games Friday at Oracle. Rapper and actor Ice Cube is the league’s co-creator.
Jackson, who is 40 and last played in the NBA in the 2013-14 season, has fond memories of the “We Believe” days. Don Nelson, then the Warriors’ head coach, traded for Jackson and Al Harrington at midseason. Jackson was damaged goods, awaiting sentencing for a strip-club parking-lot altercation that ended with Jackson firing shots into the air in self-defense.
Nelson not only welcomed Jackson, he appointed him captain. Jackson responded by teaming with Davis, Monta Ellis and Jason Richardson to lead the Warriors into the playoffs and over the stunned Mavericks. In that six-game series, Jackson was thrown out of two games.
“It’s easy to go out there and fight and scratch and play and sweat and bleed for guys that you consider your friends, your brothers,” Jackson said of the We Believers. “I been knowin’ Baron since I was 16, I been knowin’ Al since I was 19.
“We basically raised Monta. When we got to Golden State, Monta didn’t have a tattoo. By the time we left, his whole body was covered. We grew together, and we had to make some noise in the league because it was an opportunity we couldn’t let go.”
Incidentally, those players knew how to unwind after a hard night on the courts.
“We were in the city,” said Jackson, who got his Stack Jack nickname from his habit of keeping a tall stack of cash money in his bedroom. “We’d go out in the city, go hang out in the city, hang out with the people. We didn’t come in with security, have our own section away from everybody. We mingled with all the people in the city, all the homies. Not only were we winnin’, but it made them feel all a part of it. I was shoppin’ and eatin’ and partyin’ in the city, and they just embraced us.
“If you ask the fans in the Bay Area, they love winnin’ these championships right now, but they’ll tell you they got a special place in their hearts for us. It’s gonna feel good to come back to Oracle and play — I can’t wait to get that feeling back again.”
Jackson hasn’t lost an ounce of passion for the game. He plays in various leagues, in pickup games, works out daily, says he’s in NBA condition.
“If you really love something, you gonna do it until you can’t do it no more,” he said. “And that’s how I feel about basketball. I’m good at it, so I play with a passion, and I’m gonna continue to play it . ... I don’t understand how people who retire automatically stop playing. I’m gonna keep playing ’til God takes my blessing from me.”
Note to Bob Myers: Don’t worry about Jackson’s old bad-guy rep. I asked him about the praying hands and how that gun prayer has worked.
“I haven’t been in any trouble since 2007,” Jackson said. “I grew up in that (street) life, I had a lot of growing to do at that time, and those situations helped me grow.”
Your move, Bob Myers. Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler