Draymond Green gave former Warriors coach Mark Jackson credit for instilling the core trio of him, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson with confidence when they were younger, which allowed them to form the core of the championship dynasty they became with Steve Kerr as coach.
“Where I do give Mark (Jackson) credit, is the confidence he instilled in us to be okay with us being us… I can remember vividly conversations with him like, ‘[Steph], you’re the baddest dude on the planet!’ This was before Steph was an All-Star… We’re in meetings, we’re in practice, we’re in the locker room, and he’s like, ‘Dude, you’re the baddest dude on the planet.’ Klay has no conscience and most coaches would force him to have a conscience. Mark Jackson was like, ‘Dude, you don’t think, shoot.’ What Mark instilled in us allowed us to become that.”
“Where I do give Mark [Jackson] credit, is the confidence he instilled in us… I can remember vividly conversations with him like, ‘[Steph], you’re the baddest dude on the planet!’”
Draymond Green gives Mark Jackson his flowers 💐
(via @TheVolumeSports)pic.twitter.com/W5kzNTv6ki
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 21, 2024
Mark Jackson was fired after the 2014 Playoffs where Golden State lost to the San Antonio Spurs. After Jackson had carefully nurtured the core trio, the Warriors brought in Steve Kerr to complete their development and make them championship winners, which Kerr did in his first season in charge.
Jackson was primarily fired for pushing an overly religious narrative in the team’s locker room, including referring to team president Rick Welts as a ‘penis-grabber’ because he was openly gay. Naturally, Jackson hasn’t had a job in the NBA as a coach again due to his alleged homophobic behavior.
The Warriors won four titles with the core three players and Steve Kerr as coach, forming the only modern dynasty in the NBA since the Shaq-Kobe Lakers.
Warriors Players Were Devastated When Jackson Got Fired
Mark Jackson got fired for more non-basketball reasons than anything he did on the court. Even though people took umbrage with Jackson’s methods and beliefs, the locker room was perfectly content with him as their coach and was devastated to find out he wouldn’t be a coach as the team wished to win another NBA title. Draymond Green was the source for this story as well.
“We were all crushed when [Mark Jackson] got fired because, again, we went from 23 wins to 46 wins to 48 or 49 wins the following year. We all felt like we were building towards something. You take a team who hadn’t been to the playoffs but one time in the last 20 years or something – and we went to the playoffs in back-to-back years – and then he got fired. So none of us knew what to think…what you have to remember is, it’s not like it’s year 10 Draymond, year 11 Klay [Thompson], year 13 Steph [Curry]. It’s year two, year three, and then year five. None of us know what to even think. Like what’s going on? This is really our first experience of the business side… We were just young and out here playing.”
People will always play the ‘what-if?’ game with the Warriors under Jackson or Kerr. There really isn’t much of an argument for people who still think firing Jackson was the wrong decision given what Kerr achieved. Nothing is guaranteed in the NBA, and appreciating results over hypotheticals is always encouraged.
Kerr has no metaphorical rings with the Warriors, he led them to four titles as coach. Everyone involved would likely go back and do it all over again if they had to, as Jackson’s room for improvement beyond what Kerr has achieved is extremely slim.
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