Humans create devils to explain the unexplainable tragedies in life. Some religions use Satan as an explanation for famine, natural disasters and diseases like cancer.
Mark Jackson turned out to be a metaphorical cancer, creating his own devils within the Warriors organization as he fought to rally his players around him. This is according to non-management sources from within the Warriors locker room (as recently as Saturday’s Game 7 season finale in Los Angeles) who expressed a desire to tell “the real story” behind Jackson’s dismissal. This is their account.
Bob Myers had to fire Jackson. You’ll note that I said Myers, not Joe Lacob. This was a decision Myers made, but everyone involved supported that choice. 100 percent.
Jackson’s firing had nothing to do with living in Los Angeles or not getting along with Kirk Lacob.
Outside of the conscious or unconscious bias that exists in our society when a powerful white male (Lacob) hires and supervises a minority (Jackson), this decision was not driven by race. And while religion was a factor in Jackson’s actions, it was not the reason Jackson was fired.
Jackson, in conjunction with Lindsey Hunter and Pete Myers, worked to create false enemies within the Warriors organization as a means to motivate his players and provide built-in excuses if he failed.
Well, he failed. And today’s media tour has been a convenient outlet for his built-in excuses.
When hired, Jackson claimed he was creating a new culture; that “things be changin’ in the Bay Area.” However, outside of his inner circle, he was creating a culture of fear. Warriors staff members were afraid to speak with Jackson, who had proven over and over that he would be friendly to your face and rip you behind your back. If you weren’t in his inner circle, you were the enemy. And he made sure the players got that message.
He worked to convince players that he was the only one who believed in them. He created an “us against the world” mentality. He guaranteed a playoff appearance in his first season; a perfect example of a leader creating a big hairy audacious goal that is near impossible to reach. But it set a tone.
At first, the “us against them” was the entire organization against those outside of it. In the beginning, Jackson inspired his players to believe they were better than they were. He was a huge positive in their lives both on and off the court. Many players performed better because of Jackson. Last season, it was Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry. No doubt, Jackson played a major role in Steph Curry’s growth into stardom. Draymond Green and Klay Thompson improved dramatically under Jackson.
But it became obvious over time that it was all about Jackson and his belief in the players. The “us” became Jackson and his players and the “them” was everyone else – including Warriors management and some of his coaches. Some players began to realize that it was unrealistic that those outside of Jackson’s inner circle would not want them to succeed. Would the organization really want players to fail just so they could fire Jackson? That was the message players were receiving. It didn’t make sense.
When management became aware of this problem, Jackson increased his efforts and created a full-blown campaign to discredit them amongst the players. His inner-circle spent so much time on this smear campaign, they spent less time making the team better.
The coaching staff showed signs of being unprepared. There were times Pete Myers would freestyle plays on his way out of the locker room at halftime; pitching “what-ifs” to the staff as the third quarter was about to begin.
Some of the players began to see through Jackson’s false bravado. The team was winning, but how much could be attributed to Jackson’s motivational tactics versus the fact that this was a talented group of players who were overcoming the coaching staff’s lack of preparation and game planning. Some players began to lose faith in their leader.
Near the end of the season, this negativity was hard to ignore. Everyone involved behind closed doors could feel the awkward culture that Jackson had created. Players were distracted by Jackson’s “us against them” beef with management. It was creating division within the organization and impacted their play on the court. How could it not?
This new information makes it hard to discredit stories about Mark Jackson creating a coup in the locker room against John Stockton late in his career with the Utah Jazz.
He has a history of this behavior. It is who he is – create devils as a means to make others bend to your will and provide built-in reasons for things going wrong.
Things have gone wrong and now he’s going after those devils he created.
Nearly everything stated in this piece is spot on. Only a few things where I would say not quite… but most of it is on the money.
Fake name, unnamed sources, rumors of players seeing through his charade. All written for Warriors World by a 17 year PR guy…. “Come on Son, you’re better than that!” Lol.
It could all be true, but facts please, this wuz all FOX news on Sunday-like.
Bull …… you take a team to the playoff with no big man 2 years in a row… haven’t been there since 1992 and this is what you fire a coach for …lol
Which seems more likely: that Jackson’s clashes with Malone, Scalabrine, Erman, West, and the FO were all isolated incidences, or that the common link, Jackson, was the problem? None of Jackson’s friends in the media seem to want to bring this up.
Jessy, has anyone from the organization been asked why didn’t they know he was like this when they hired him. You brought up the Stockton story, did the GSW research this? Didn’t they know of his lack of offensive imagination when they hired him? My problem with the organization is that Jackson was “their” guy. If you are firing your guy on something other than performance, you either messed up while vetting or someone changed
It was a risk-taking type of hire, which is both a pro and con of Lacob’s leadership style. At the hire, they probably saw the Jazz situation as unvalidated. From what I was told, this “coup” with the Warriors began last summer when he didn’t get a contract extension. Maybe at that point, he saw the writing on the wall and went into his version of survival mode.
I can’t believe I just wasted my time reading this conglomerate of bogus contradictions.
this article confirms a lot of my suspicions and i suspect more, and i suspect the author is holding back more as well. i’m so glad mark jackson is gone, and i never liked him from day 1. he’s a sanctimonious hypocrite wacko. did you read the article about stockton and the mark jackson quotes? everything he says is garbage. he insults the warriors fan base. screw him. if you weren’t a warriors fan before mJax GTFO!
Lions roar.55 What you just wrote, I have been telling people this whole year! I couldn’t have said it better myself. The players needed a coach, not a buddy. Jackson’s mind games with some players and all of Management will not be missed. He is a False prophet!
This article was totally absent of objectivity. Try again.
EXACTLY!
If Bogut is talking, this makes him look like crap within the organization. Most insane thing I’ve heard period, and there’s a ton of insanity here recently.
Let’s forget about off court drama for now. Which is still huge in his firing. Let’s analyze on court performance. Let’s start with his idiotic n insane substitution rotation that cost us numerous games. I understand trusting your players but as a coach if your player doesn’t have it for that game he doesn’t continue to play. Again cost us numerous games for leaving that player in to long. We ran the same offense over and over again during the regular season and playoffs with no adjustment depending on our opponent. How about instead of lee/curry pick n roll at the top…We have klay/curry at the top n klay doesn’t roll….if they double team curry, klay is wide open for a 3 or with lee/curry lee fake rolls n sets a screen for klay on weak side n klay pops up on top for a 3 or passes to lee who now has rolled after the screen or passes to curry if the double team has reacted to lees cut n klay cut…curry wide open. You have to make strategic play adjustments to confuse n surprise your opponent. We didn’t and it was east to defend because they anticipated our lackluster plays. That’s why we goy so many turnovers. Iso plays with Crawford dribbling everywhere while others stood stagnant or the figure 8 play curry/klay would run down low off of screens. You have to mix it up. We should have had closer if not 60 wins but lost to crappy teams because of lack of preparation by the coach. Why did we keep making the same stupid mistakes game after game. That’s lack of coaching. Screw your 3 point contest with the players…Get advice from your coaches n Jerry west n watch game film instead of firing or demoting them n kicking west out of practices. Is that enough i could go on..but do u even understand hoops or know what your looking at?
Go watch hockey then
I think there’s no way this dirty laundry is being purposely aired. All over the sports world, unnamed sources break news. That is the way the business works. The entire coaching staff has been removed. Sure they are unhappy. Fired, unhappy people talk trash about their former employer all the time.
Wake up and smell the coffee people. Don’t kill the messenger.
Jesse Taylor, I’m pretty sure it’s just one player who would have a story to tell anonymously. Big tall guy, extremely fragile, one of the best in the league….at getting hurt year in year out. Maybe that’s why he’s always hurt, Karma.
Curry, Klay, Andre, Lee, Barnes, Green, Speights, ONeal – all support Jackson
Blake, Crawford – not with team long enough to have seen all the drama
Kuzmic, Nedovic – Armstrong – rookies with injuries, Dleague, just happy to be in nba
Ezeli – hurt, supports Jackson
and the winner of the “source” award is……..Bogut! We all knew he fragile, now we know he’s sensitive as well
To everybody that’s left, I hope you can swim……ship is sinking!!!
Thanks Jesse for telling this story. Nice link for the Jackson/Jazz debacle. That was certainly news to me, and it provides credibility to this Jackson/Warriors debacle.
There has been so much dirty laundry surrounding the Warriors management recently, and to my eyes, Jackson absolutely is the biggest issue.
Why the heck would Erman be taping people? Because Warriors upper management wanted to know what the coaches are doing. They likely found it hard to believe how disfunctional Jackson was and recordings gave them a better picture than Erman’s own account of the situations could.
As much bs as we have heard, its much more likely these things are true than made up. No matter how unbelievable. I just wish Warriors brass could say “we made a choice to move on from Jackson”
What a joke, they talked about all the dysfunction with Jackson, but yet Lacob & co can’t contain all these leaks? They ain’t trying to contain leaks, anybody with a brain knows Lacob & co opened the flood gates under the name “unnamed sources” to try and discredit Jackson and get back in favor with the public. Lacob is smart, buisness smart, I’ll give him that. He’s trying to keep his losses to a minimum. We now see how Lacob does buisness, cut throat.
Quit leaking stuff Lacob & co, you ain’t fooling nobody, hiding behind an unnamed source just makes you look weak.
I’m actually OK with the firing though the team better have a lock on a demonstrably better coach. Even so, this post doesn’t pass my smell test either. The 3 consecutive sentences declaring this as “a decision Myers made” set off my b.s. detector and it never stopped beeping after that. The whole post gave me a creepy shill-chill.
This story reeks of hyperbole and misinformation. The first give away is the un-named source. It just seems like a PR ploy by the warriors to save face after for if a winning coach. There was obviously a rift between uppermanagement and MJ. There also seems to be an issue with how he injected his religion into the daily routine of the organization. Those two things are consistent. I just hope his replacement turns out to be better(and more secular) for the warriors culture and their championship hopes.
There was something extremely fishy about this story. It reeks of a plot to discredit Mark Jackson. I would not be surprised if the people responsible for his firing set this guy up to write the story. I’ll stop short of calling him a liar although I think I’m on track I’ll just say I do not believe you. It sounds like a personal vendetta against MJ. He is attempting to accuse him of a lot without actually saying anything. Making up devils? What an obvious smear campaign. This obviously has to do with his religion and probably his race. And this garbage made it to bleacher report? please!
Sounds like some bullsh*t to me. “The Warriors were a bunch of talented players that overcame their coaches lack of preparation”??? This te played above itself consistently. It’s a one-star team with a bunch of role players. Not one of the players other than Curry would start for another playoff team in the league. So, they did something no other Warrior team did for the last 19 years with a coach that’s sowing cancerous dissent??? Again, bulls*t!!! This writer’s analysis is as vapid as the bonehead decision to fire Jackson.
You’re a book bonehead for asserting that no other player on their roster would start for a playoff team. Do you even watch basketball?? Have you even seen a game?!?! You’re an idiot and you should think before you open your big, dumbass mouth.
Iguodala (Team USA Gold medal winner)
David Lee (should be an All-Star)
Bogut (Top-10 C in the league)
I hate your guts and I hate people like you that spew senseless bull crap all over the Internet. Do some research before you open your big mouth next time.
Hey he definitely was wrong about the starting thing but take it easy man. He made a bold statement in an effort to defend Jackson he didn’t insult your family. Saying you hate him is pretty harsh. I’m not some pansy who needs everybody to love everybody but come on ease up
I love story’s that are based off of a source (coward). They are way better than story’s that involve real people with real names that have to tell the real story. Don’t ever listen to the negativity Jesse Taylor! It’s your story, you can tell it however you want
Can you tell us that your source was not one of the players?
I can’t. It definitely wasn’t Lacob, Myers or the Warriors PR department. They are trying to contain leaks from what I have seen as they search for a new coach.
The John Stockton is the only fact cited at all related to the narrative created in this article? Everything I’ve read against Jackson so far seems to be speculated, or makes everyone else presume that it’s from inside the organization. The only facts I’ve seen are the Warriors records and his players’ support
Players support? Which players? Curry? Green? Iguodala? O’Neal? Lee? who else has been vocally supportive? Nobody. Notice anything here… they are all the disciplines of his church.
You won’t hear the others who aren’t brainwashed…. supporting him.
Interesting post. I think part of it is that Mark didn’t “fit into the box” of what NBA coaches typically are…does that create a culture of FEAR? Probably not..misunderstanding, yes. Lacob admits he looks at this like a startup..bad move.
Especially when you are trying to change CULTURE.
Rings true to me. You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with.
Damn. Not sure how much of this is the source speaking and how much the writer editorializing. I think Myers made the right choice, but I suspect the picture is not as extreme as is being painted here.
Entire story was from source material, outside of my devil metaphors. It was actually more extreme, but I had to keep it as general as possible to protect anonymity.
Seriously??? Come on dude! Come off the crap. Everyone knows that your (story) is contrived trash.
Interesting Jesse. Now that MJ is gone how come the name BILL LAIMBEER ,doesn’t appear on the Dubs radar as a possible head coach? With Laimbeer, and assistants Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland, I think they can transform the Dubs into the badddest team in the West as a contrast to MJ’s Choir Boys image…I see the Dubs as a Soft team….